A structured course of employed primarily in healthcare settings, it entails assessing a affected person’s situation remotely by way of phone or different communication applied sciences. This methodology is used to guage the urgency of medical wants, present fast recommendation, and information sufferers towards probably the most acceptable degree of care. As an illustration, a nurse may ask a sequence of questions to find out if a caller experiencing chest ache ought to go to the emergency room instantly, schedule an appointment with their major care doctor, or handle their signs at house.
This follow is essential for optimizing healthcare useful resource allocation, making certain that sufferers obtain well timed and acceptable care, and decreasing pointless emergency room visits. It gives elevated accessibility to medical steering, particularly for people in distant areas or these with restricted mobility. Traditionally, it emerged as a method to handle rising calls for on healthcare techniques and to streamline affected person circulate, resulting in higher effectivity and improved affected person satisfaction.