A Triage Tool for Minor Injuries

Clinical Triage Services

Our Aim

The aim of the triage services is to:

• reduce the length of time the client has to wait to contact a physiotherapist, psychologist, etc.
• offer timely advice, including exercises and education, to help with early recovery
• enable the patient to be proactive in managing minor conditions without needing to visit a specialist

What to expect

Telephone assessment may result in one of the following:

• telephone advice only (followed up by brief report to referrer)
• telephone advice plus recommendation for an appointment (followed up by report to referrer with clinical reasoning for same)
• urgent recommendation for referral to another service (’red flag’)

Efficient and effective

Overland Health offers 3 different streams for our triage to be delivered. These are;

1. Musculoskeletal (MSK) triage
2. Acute Clinical Injury Assessment (ACIA)
3. Acute Clinical Psychological Assessment (ACPA)

What happens when you refer a client?

Overland Health employs Occupational Health Nurses, Occupational Therapists and Psychologists.

To ensure our staffs provide the right advice, it is important to first ensure that they are the right professional in the first place.

Overland’s Triage service is designed to;

• Use sophisticated, computerised decision support protocols
• Provide recommendations and help callers make informed healthcare decisions
• Provide self-care advice appropriate to the presenting symptoms and level of care required
• Safe, accessible, prompt support
• Relieve the pressure of in-clinic intervention for clients who may not require urgent, costly assessment
• Provide a brief summary of recommended treatment/rehab and projected costs for same.

Your client will have a brief phone-based assessment which will involve discussion about the incident or history of their pain or problems, what treatment/advice they have received and are scheduled to receive and a phone-based examination.

Our staff use sophisticated, computerised decision support protocols to make client assessments and recommendations.

The triage staffs then advises the caller on the type of healthcare support they may need as well as offering on-the-spot advice and education regarding their injury/condition.

From this we will aim to provide the client with an explanation of their symptoms and agree a simple plan on what may help them achieve your goals and their best possible outcome.

Please note that this is not a diagnostic service.

Following the assessment, a brief report is submitted to you, indicating clinical recommendations for treatment/rehab as well as justification for same. The report includes any advice which was given to the client, any barriers which have been identified and all barriers which have been resolved during the triage assessment.

Attached to the report is an information hand-out pertaining to the diagnosis/injury which may be distributed to the client by the referring party at their discretion.

Finally, the report provides a brief summary of recommended treatment/rehab and projected costs for same.

The Acute Clinical Injury Assessment (ACIA) is a brief injury and rehabilitation assessment model that reduces costs, minimises lost time and identifies treatment/rehabilitation requirements to assist an injured person recover and return to work in a safe and sustained way.

ACIA is an incident triage tool that classifies an incident/injury according to severity. Clinical advice, phone-based intervention and recovery planning is facilitated immediately via our national preferred clinical network and on-site injury management consultants. ACIA also provides expert case management advisory services, in terms of identifying and recommending suitable treatment or rehabilitation services which may assist in aiding a sustained recovery and safe return to work. Overland Health is able to utilise the skill base and national distribution of physiotherapy, psychology and occupational rehabilitation experts to facilitate timely, co-ordinated and goal orientated assessment reporting.

Key Features of Triage Services

• On-site best practice consultation and advisory services.
• On-site national injury management advisors.
• Proactive contact from our triage team.
• National network of physiotherapy, psychology and occupational rehabilitation practitioners.
• Facilitation of medical instructions and treatment (if required).
• Rapid engagement of all key stakeholders in the injury management process.
• Immediate implementation of rehabilitation needs cost evaluation.
• Trend reporting on company incidents, claims and injury management statistics

Key Benefits of Triage Services

• Proactive early intervention – Allied health experts engaged within hours of injury.
• Application of best practice injury and claims management process.
• A nationally consistent approach.
• Expert care for all of your clients and employees.
• Reduction in lost time injuries
• Minimisation of "lost productivity".
• Decreased occupational rehabilitation spend.
• Reduced claims costs.
• Quick, durable and safe rehabilitation intervention and outcomes.
• Reduced Workers Compensation premiums.

Find Out More

To find out more about our Minor Injury Triage services or any other areas of our rehabilitation provision, please contact our team on (020) 3355 4259, make an enquiry here or, to make a referral or request a quote, use our online referral form here.