Queensland nurses go after new triage algorithm

Queensland Health is hunting for a new algorithm-based system that will help its registered nurses deliver advice to patients over the phone, based on details like their age, sex, health conditions and proximity to a health facility.

The state health authority is looking to replace the decision making support system used by its 30-seat teletriage service, a public hotline that allows Queenslanders to call in and get advice on whether to see a medical professional based on their symptoms.

The old decision support system has reached its tenth birthday, and the state is looking for new technology to see it through the next decade.

It wants an algorithm-based solution that will use patient data, teamed with clinical decision making processes, to automatically guide the nurses though a call based on the information a patient shares with them.

The new set of algorithms or data protocols will need to integrate seamlessly with Health’s central contact centre’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM, automatically pulling out a patient’s demographic details to inform the clinical decision support system, and then recording the event details back to a client’s file.

The decision support system will also take into account the severity of the patient’s symptoms, plus the time and their location, to automatically recommend the best possible health facility for ongoing consultation.

A number of alert triggers will be built into the solution to automatically pick up on possible high-risk symptoms early, so triage nurses can take emergency action to get callers to a hospital or medical professional as quickly as possible.

The Queensland Health contact centre said it is open to a hosted solution for the data protocols which will interface with the contact centre’s on-premise solutions via a secure encrypted link.

The new system will be "Australianised" to deliver clinical guidelines tailored to local terminology and local medications and medical subsidies.

The teletriage centre completes roughly 300,000 sessions every year, with that figure increasing by about 10 percent each 12 months.