Residency Manual

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Appendix S:

SUNY Salaried Residents Telephone Triage Protocol

Policy: University Eye Center offers patients telephone triage for emergency care on holidays, weekends or other times when the center is closed. Procedure: • After-hours phone calls are answered by an answering service. • Answering service contacts the telephone triage practitioner providing patient name, date of birth and contact number.

• The telephone triage practitioner contacts the patient and determines the appropriate course of action. Prior to resident emancipation, the supervising attending must be contacted to discuss the case. • The telephone triage practitioner will make a telephone communication note in the EHR (within 24 hours) that includes the following: • Date/Time of call • Problem • Action Taken • Follow-up needed

The supervising attending is responsible for opening the encounter for the telephone communication in the EHR until the resident on call has been emancipated. If the patient is advised to come to the UEC, the Chief and manager of the Service the patient is referred to should be notified via email. Security should be made aware that the patient is expected either via email or a call on the day the patient is expected. ** REMEMBER – there are no clinics open on Tuesday mornings. If the patient must be seen on Tuesday morning, the triage practitioner must make arrangements for the patient to receive care. If the triage provider has an assignment at an outside location, they are responsible for finding another resident/practitioner to provide the care on Tuesday morning** Telephone Triage Assignments and Responsibilities: • The Chief Medical Officer of the UEC is responsible for oversight of Emergency Telephone Triage. • The Chief Medical officer (or their designee) will create the Telephone Triage Schedule and monitor emergency care activities. • Any issues or problems encountered during telephone triage should be brought to the attention of the Chief Medical Officer as soon as possible. • Telephone triage assignments are one week rotations, beginning and ending at noon on the day/dates specified. (Specific day of the week may be subject to change). • The UEC will provide a cellular phone which the resident assigned to telephone triage will use to receive and respond to emergency calls. • The phone must be on and available for calls from 6pm through 8am every day except Tuesday.

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