Tele-Triage Comes To Workers’ Comp, With Doctors Available 24/7

We are all familiar with the concept of nurse triage to help manage work-related injuries. A new telemedicine concept, doctor triage, takes the idea to the next level.

The telemedicine approach reduces costs, increases flexibility for both doctors and patients and allows for consultations 24 hours a day.

Patients speak with board-certified physicians who determine if self-care, emergency room or clinic visits are appropriate and do so more authoritatively than is possible with nurse triage.

Early results from our own Doctor Now program find that 99% of the people who were recommended for self-care returned to work without additional treatment. Part of the reason appears to be that, among those who speak with a doctor, self-care recommendations are followed more often.

Doctor triage is part of the growing trend in enhancing telemedicine programs. The number of patients using telemedicine services increased to 7 million in 2018, up from less than 350,000 in 2013.