The Center’s information intake specialists assess a call’s priority and manage it appropriately.  The 25 specially trained telephone triage nurses fulfill the traditional clinical management role.  A team effort is used to assure that each of the 300,000 annual callers receives the best clinical and customer service.  

In essence, physician subscribers sign out their telephone lines to the Center or an answering service that faxes patient messages.  The nurse triage service acts as an extension of the subscribing doctor’s office.  Most of the callers are parents who simply need some reassurance and advice to get them through the night until their doctor’s office is open; however about 10 percent of the patients are directed to an after-hours facility or emergency room to receive immediate medical evaluation.  In the middle of the night or after hours, physicians often are not able to provide the same level of care as the Center’s nurses.  Nurses are even authorized to call in certain prescriptions, if needed, on behalf of the covering physician.  At the conclusion of each telephone call, the nurse faxes a computerized summary of the call to a patient’s physician, ensuring continuity of care.