Author: Paul Binsfeld, Founder and President of Company Nurse
As an insurance agent, you understand that your clients and their organizations face new challenges every day, including keeping workers' compensation costs down, receiving proper workplace injury reports and improving employee morale.
It doesn't need to be difficult to address these needs. In fact, by simply guiding your clients to the right nurse triage program, you can help them create better workers' comp results, reducing experience modification factors and strengthening your client relationships.
What is Nurse Triage?
Nurse triage is the vital first step in the workplace injury process. For organizations that invest in a nurse triage program, when a worker sustains a workplace injury, the worker should immediately contact the organization's nurse triage service.
The injured worker will first report the injury to an intake coordinator, who will efficiently gather information necessary both to help the nurse triage the injury and the organization and other stakeholders process the injury report.
The injured worker will then speak with a registered nurse who will triage the injury to appropriate care – self-care, doctor, or emergency room.
Finally, triage staff send the necessary reports to the employer, the medical provider (if applicable) and other stakeholders.
Improve Injury Reporting Consistency and Accuracy
When you present new programs to your clients, you may receive pushback. So, when you suggest nurse triage to your clients, they may wonder why they should make it easier for employees to report claims. Here's how you can respond.
First, with the right nurse triage program, your clients can improve their injury reporting consistency and accuracy. Make sure your clients use a nurse triage process that allows them to customize the questions and details for workers to answer when they report a workplace injury. This way, your clients have all the information their organization needs to efficiently complete the claims process.
When employees can easily report an injury, even if it becomes a claim, your clients are encouraging an open, honest, positive culture. Employees will see that your clients value their wellbeing and want to help them get the care they need.
In addition, nurse triage encourages timely reporting of claims. When employees report claims immediately after the workplace injury occurs, your clients can address them head on, preventing both the claim and the injury from worsening.
Look for a program that allows employees to report injuries the way they want. With a nurse triage contact center that offers multiple channels, workers can use the method they are most comfortable with to initiate the process – a telephone call, scheduled callbacks, chat, and digital self-reporting. This will further encourage employees to send reports and will break barriers to reporting them quickly.
Implementing a nurse triage process is vital for any-size employer. It can take one claim to disrupt a business or end it – no matter how big or small. By getting immediate notifications of workplace injuries, your clients can prevent claims from escalating, or stop them from happening in the first place with self-care recommendations from triage nurses (as is the case with 40% of injuries reported to Company Nurse).
Reduce Workers' Comp Costs
When an injured employee has access to nurse triage, the employee speaks with a registered nurse who ensures that injured workers receive the care they need, soon after the injury occurs.
When injured workers have access to a medical professional, they receive accurate and timely instructions to address their injuries. At Company Nurse, 40% of the injuries reported to our nurses the employees address with self-care – no visit to the doctor, urgent care, or emergency room visits needed. Out of these incidents, only a small percentage of workers contact the nurse again for referral based on continued symptoms.
And no visit to a medical facility means no claim and no medical or indemnity expenses.
At Company Nurse, employers see first-hand how early intervention and self-care advice results in lower claims and costs. In fact, our clients experience a 15-20% reduction in claims and a 20-30% cost reduction.
When you help your clients reduce their claims, you also help them reduce their experience modification factor, reducing insurance premiums and improving client satisfaction.
Boost Employee Happiness and Productivity
When your clients provide nurse triage, their employees have direct access to a medical professional who can help them immediately address their workplace injuries, with either self-care instructions or a referral to a facility.
At Company Nurse, we take the extra step in verifying these medical facilities. We check their hours, equipment and services to make sure the facility can provide the injured worker with the proper care to address his or her specific injury.
Providing nurse triage services provides employees with peace-of-mind. It is an effective way for organizations to demonstrate to their team that they care about their wellbeing, improving employee morale and job contentment.
It's no secret that happy employees are more productive employees. According to a study from Oxford Business School, they are 13% more productive.
With better focus and productivity, your clients can also expect lower rates of accidents and, as such, claims.
Nurse triage is a vital part of creating a well-rounded risk management plan. For more information on nurse triage, contact sales@companynurse.com
Last Updated: January 27, 2023
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