 Phone Triage
One of the services that makes Annapolis Pediatrics so convenient for our patients is a dedicated phone-triage nursing staff who responds to questions by phone during all our business hours. This is wonderful for those times when you might need some advice from a medical professional, when you aren’t sure if you need an appointment.
Patients and staff have noticed how important this service has become, as we’ve had to add more nurses to the triage service during peak call hours, typically Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as mornings during peak cold and flu season. Once you leave a message for a triage nurse, you may not realize what goes on behind the scenes.
Dedicated to Triage
We have two or three (depending on the day) nurses who solely respond to your messages. They work in a room in the Annapolis Office dedicated to phone calls, separate from the hubbub of the office. In addition to their expertise, our triage nurses have at their fingertips all of the standard medical references for children as well as the latest information on medicines and medical protocol. Of course, they are only steps away from our pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners when they do need to seek additional assistance.
First and Foremost
Our automated phone system offers several advantages. First and foremost, it allows us to respond to your calls in order of medical acuity or importance. We check our incoming messages constantly throughout the day. Your message will always be retrieved within the hour. This means that serious medical concerns will be responded to as rapidly as possible. We need to respond to the sickest children first. This doesn’t mean your child’s persistent diaper rash or even potentially serious behavioral problem doesn’t concern us, but it may not require the most immediate medical attention of our triage calls for the moment.
Keep on Talking
Make sure we can hear you. It may sound silly, but our system is designed for efficiency, so it will stop recording you when it hears silence. If your child is crying or playing in the background (which we understand), the machine will continue to record, slowing down the prompts, often to your frustration. If you want to be as speedy as possible, call from a quiet location without interference, which sometimes means your cell phone isn’t the best either.
Be as specific as possible in your message. If you want to know how to best manage a symptom your child has, be specific about the symptom (coughing, stuffiness, ear pain, nausea). If you are following up on an office visit you recently had, please let us know. This helps us determine whether we should find your child’s medical records before we call you back. If you are seeking lab results, let us know what kind of results (such as “blood-work from Quest on Defense Highway”)
Medical Records
Medical records are an important point, because one thing that can slow us down in returning calls is tracking down your child’s medical history. If your child has an appointment already scheduled for that day, is a patient of a doctor who works primarily outside the Annapolis Office, or you’ve left more than one message in different voicemail boxes on our phone system, we may not be able to easily find your chart. Let us know this on your message, as well (such as, “We’re scheduled to see Dr. Edwards this afternoon, but…”). This will start us looking in the right place and save time responding to your call, as well as others!
We ask a lot of questions, not to frustrate you on your busy day, but we’ve got a lot of patients with similar names. Please be clear with your child’s name and spelling, as well as his or her birthday. That way we will know we’ve got the records for the right John Miller.
Help Us Help You
We know that sick kids make the day crazy—we’ve got kids, too. However, you want us to reach you as fast as possible, so be sure to give us a number where you can be reached. We prefer land-lines, to have a good connection, but if you’re heading out to the carpool line or soccer practice, leave your cell phone number and, by all means, keep your phone handy! |
