By Debra Spamer, vice president of business development at Company Nurse LLC
If your organization has ever considered utilizing a nurse triage program for workplace injuries, now is the perfect time.
With a growing list of responsibilities in the current work environment, implementing a new program is probably the last thing you want to do. But it’s more important now than ever.
The right nurse triage program is a benefit for your employees, guides your employees to the right care, and provides immediate reporting and administrative relief, saving you time and money.
Employee Benefit
Workplace injuries are stressful for both employers and employees. Combine that with the global pandemic, and even minor injuries can send employees into a panic.
So, it’s more important than ever that employees have access to a team of caring and compassionate nurses. Nurses who can direct employees to get the care they need and confidently start the workplace injury process, helping your employees to also have a successful nurse case management process (learn about the difference between triage nurses and nurse case managers and how these roles complement each other, here).
Workplace injuries are not always physical, especially in these stressful times. Our nurses can help employees access mental health care — whether from a preferred provider or your Employee Assistance Program. Your employees will thank you for this benefit!
The Right Care
Without nurse triage, supervisors typically must bear the weight of determining immediate care after a workplace injury. Some may err on the side of caution, which can mean unnecessarily sending injured workers to urgent care or even the emergency room. For employees, this can mean unnecessary hours of waiting to speak with a medical professional. For employers, it means unnecessary claims and piles of medical bills.
Or, supervisors may incorrectly determine that an injured worker doesn’t need to seek treatment at a medical facility, delaying care or offering diminished care which can worsen the injury, extend the return-to-work timeline, and increase claim costs.
These are decisions that should be made by medical experts, not supervisors. With nurse triage, injured workers have access to the experts they need. Supervisors are no longer responsible for making medical decisions.
Triage nurses may even resolve employees’ injuries with self-care advice, as is the case 40% of the time. When triage nurses can provide injured workers with self-care advice, this dissolves the need for further medical assistance, reducing claims by up to 20%. If injuries require further medical attention, injured workers are referred to employer-designated facilities. With fewer claims and the right medical facilities being used, employers can easily save money, seeing their workers’ comp costs drop by up to 30%.
Manage Exposures and Reporting Requirements
Managing exposures is likely one of the most important items on your list of responsibilities. Nurse triage can not only simplify your workplace injury care and reporting process, but your exposure and reporting process as well.
Employees, especially first responders and those in the healthcare industry, can face a variety of hazards, including dangerous exposures. And when they sustain exposures, it’s scary. Employees and their supervisors may be shocked and forget the proper protocol. In turn, they don’t receive the treatments they need, and their exposures are reported incorrectly or perhaps not at all.
By having a nurse triage program in place, workers can easily follow regulations and their employer’s unique protocol for exposures. All they need to remember is to contact their nurse triage service and they will be walked through the necessary steps. Direct access to a triage nurse also encourages timely reporting of injuries and exposures, an important part of complying with protocol.
Immediate Reporting and Administrative Relief
Workplace injuries are usually followed by countless hours of administrative work, including collecting incident details and interviewing the injured workers and witnesses. This is followed by trying to get that information to the right stakeholders (the TPA, insurance carrier, claims adjuster, etc.) in a timely manner so they can more efficiently do their jobs.
With the right nurse triage program, you get the information you need, immediately after the injury is reported with our detailed injury reports. This allows you to easily manage and address claims before they spiral out of control.
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With the right nurse triage program, you have an important tool to help you save money and time.
Want to learn how Company Nurse can further help your organization? Contact sales@companynurse.com.