Bad economy effecting triage nursing?

Specialties Triage

Published

Specializes in BNAT instructor, ICU, Hospice,triage.

We had a Dr. that we triage for, ask for the stats of all his calls in the last 30 days. Then, now we just got informed that another Dr wants his stats too.

Are the docs feeling this recession enough that some may be cancelling our services? I just started this new job and I'm so extremely excited about this job, I just hope its not the end of a REALLY good thing for me!

This company has been in business for over 10 years, and triage for 100 docs.

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Specializes in cardiac, HH/Infusion, disease mtg,triage.

I'm glad to see someone else has questioned this, as it concerns me as well. I was laid off my last call center triage job from a hospital that provided free community triage services for the last 15 yrs. With the economy i can see our free service was the first to go to "cut the fat". I now work for a company like yours that has over 100 or so clients (insurance companies,Dr offices, military services), so the company is getting paid for our triage service and i can see that making a difference. But i wonder, as many unfortunate people lose their jobs... then their insurance benefits, which and lead to decrease calls from insurance covered callers... which means less Dr office visits as they prob will not be able to afford to pay .... this may mean less calls from these particular Dr offices as the office will prob not want to pay for pts no longer coming into the practice to be seen? I question a poss cut from Dr offices and insurance companies. I think that leaves medicare callers (elderly) and military callers, and these should remain stable, i hope.

My company assured us that if anything, they have clients on hold right now that are wanting to come aboard for triage services, so they feel right now all is well. I don't wanna sound grim, but the future economy does look scary! Will it get to the point that the only stable nursing job is bedside nursing? Cuz from where i'm looking at things... it could get really tight for everyone. The pts will likely go to places like free or low cost clinics and ER for eval and tx if they lose jobs/benefits. Who will pay for them to get health advice/triage/preventative care by phone?

Looking forward to what everyone else thinks. Maybe i am over reacting...

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Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.

I was laid off by a major company 04/2009. Telephone Triage can be expensive, so it is one of them to go.

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