Triage in General Practice

GP Access: has clinical triage training and manuals - $70, 11 August. They also have “Enhancing Receptionist Skills including understanding your role & responsibilities, acceptable behaviour, conflict and negotiation skills, managing complaints & lots more’, Triage, CPR and ‘Trouble in the Waiting Room’ - $85, 4 August.
http://www.gpa.net.au/files/factsheets/GPA_FactsSheet_68.pdf


Telephone Triage Online Seminar

Special guest Sally-Anne Pygall (UK) hosted a live webinar on her area of specialty, Telephone Triage in Primary Health Care, on the eve of the APNA National Conference in Sydney.

Telephone Triage in Primary Health Care: The risks and how to manage them

CPD: Approximately 1 hour

Click here to download and watch the presentation now

Viewers will need Windows Media Player (or Microsoft Silver Light) and will be prompted to download if not already installed.

****APNA is taking expressions of interest for a one day telephone triage workshop, presented by Sally-Anne Pygall, in either Melbourne or Sydney at the end of the year. Please e-mail events@apna.asn.au to register your interest.****

Synopsis for webinar: Telephone triage is commonly the first step on many patient pathways, particularly in after hours or unscheduled care, but we underestimate the full potential of telephone care and the risks associated with telephone triage. In spite of the technology surrounding healthcare nowadays, old fashioned talking to the patient over the phone is still an important and integral part of their care. Patients place a high value on having a human voice to talk to, someone with the potential to provide them with the best care as quickly as possible. Telephone triage is now common place with up to 25% of all consultations between a patient and a health care provider now taking place over the phone. Telephone triage is associated with high levels of risk and at its extreme level could be compared in many ways to other environs, such as air traffic control and emergency service dispatching where rapid and precise decisions are necessary.

The complexity of decision making in telephone triage is also affected by the level of comprehension on behalf of the patient or caller. Another risk in telephone triage is that vital pieces of information may be missing and this is often because the quality of communication may be compromised. The lack of non verbal clues and direct physical examination (including smell); along with the potential for communications difficulties are important differences between face to face and telephone consultations.

All in all, there is no denying telephone triage is a risky activity. This webinar looks at the risks you may be exposing yourself or your patient to and how can you reduce or manage those risks.

Sally-Anne Pygall has been a nurse and midwife for over 25 years. She worked as a Practice Nurse for eight years in the UK before joining NHS Direct 13 years ago. Since that time she has remained exclusively in the area of telephone triage at a senior level within NHS Direct, primary care providers, private sector companies and Social Enterprise organisations. Her experience of this subspecialty is extensive and she is passionate about improving the quality of telephone consultations as there are immense benefits, but also immense risks, for the patient, the clinician and the organisation; risks which are often hugely underestimated and insufficiently managed.

Sally-Anne launched her own company two years ago and now offers her expertise in telephone triage training and consultancy services wherever patient care is managed over the telephone.

Note: There was a power outage at the hotel at the time of recording and we lost the first half of the presentation. Sally-Anne was kind enough to re-record the presentation from her home in the UK. We have now synchronised the presentation with the slides and it is available to view.

We apologise for the delay and any inconvenience.

Any questions can be directed to Almila events@apna.asn.au or 03 9669 7400