SironaHealth's Medical Call Center Blog

Needless to say, there isn’t a health plan, hospital, or physicians practice that isn’t feeling the impact of the H1N1 pandemic. At SironaHealth we have deployed our Pandemic Plan. However, we continue to measure, learn and put new elements in place to meet the challenge. Our customers depend on telephone triage services to ensure their patients get the care they need as quickly as possible. 

Here are some trends we have seen to date:

1. Overall volume is up 40% over last year. The volume climbed very steeply starting in September through the first week in November. We have recently seen indications that the call volume may be beginning to stabilize.
   
   
2. The medium age of all patients has dropped from 12 yrs to 8 yrs during this period.
   
   
3. We have seen a significant increase in the use of our H1N1 audio topic during inbound calls.
   
   
4. As expected, the busiest time is during evening and early morning hours.
   
   
5. Roughly 50% of all our patients have flu symptoms. During some intervals, the flu calls exceeded 90% with surges up to 100%.
   
   
6. The disposition statistics for both influenza and the H1N1 guideline reflect increases in acuity: 25% require 911 or ED services, 37% need to see a physician within hours or a few days, and 38 % require homecare.  

Key Takeaways:

• We are seeing higher ED/ER and PCP utilization rates than normal. Considering the demographic and the nature of H1N1, this is to be expected.
   
• About 46 % of the H1N1 callers indicated that they would have gone to the Emergency Room or called 911 if the nurse advice line service had not been available.
   
• The median age of patients triaged using the H1N1 guideline is 14 yrs.  Parents of these children would be highly likely to seek emergency care. Again, 46% stated they would do so.
  
  
• Nurse Advice Line services are successfully matching patients with the most appropriate care, saving them time and healthcare dollars.

Our primary concern at SironaHealth is to keep patients safe by getting them to the next level of appropriate care with speed and compassion. Our numbers clearly indicate that a registered nurse, using proven triage guidelines, is extremely effective in facilitating H1N1 care decisions.