As the 2023 clinical update cycle comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the changes made this year to the clinical content used in ClearTriage:
- After Hours Protocols
- Office Hours Protocols
- Adult Care Advice Handouts
- Pediatric Care Advice Handouts
After Hours Protocol Updates
The 2023 annual updates to the After Hours telephone triage protocols were released in April. These updates included 24 new protocols (18 adult and 6 pediatric) and improvements to many more protocols.
New Adult Protocols:
- Abdomen Bloating and Swelling
- Acne
- Boil (Skin Abscess) on Treatment Follow-up Call
- Cancer – Breathing Difficulty
- Cracked or Dry Skin
- Hospice – Caregiver Need for Support or Respite
- Hospice – Medication Question or Refill Call
- Hospice – Oral Intake Decreased
- Hospice – Seizure
- Hospice – Skin Breakdown and Pressure Sores
- Hospice – Swallowing Difficulty
- Hospice – Urinary Symptoms
- Menopause Symptoms and Questions
- Postpartum – High Blood Pressure
- Pregnancy – High Blood Pressure
- Pregnancy – Itching
- Weight Loss – Unintended
- Wound Infection on Antibiotic Follow-up Call
New Pediatric Protocols:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Foot Injury
- Habit Problems of Childhood
- Motor Vehicle Accident
- Opioid Use or Problems
- Stool – Soiling (Encopresis)
For more details about the After Hours update, please see these letters from the authors which summarize the changes in this update: Pediatric After Hours Changes and Adult After Hours Changes.
Office Hours Protocol Updates
The 2023 annual updates to the Office Hours telephone triage protocols were released in August. These updates included 19 new protocols (15 adult and 4 pediatric) and improvements to many more protocols.
New Adult Protocols:
- Abdomen Bloating and Swelling
- Colonoscopy Symptoms and Questions
- Difficult Call
- IV Not Running or Running Slowly
- IV Site and Other Symptoms
- Mouth Pain
- Muscle Jerks – Tics – Shudders
- Oxygen Monitoring and Hypoxia
- Skin Glue Questions
- Sores
- Sty
- Toenail – Ingrown
- Transgender Health Concerns and Questions
- Vaginal Bleeding – Postmenopausal
- Wound Infection on Antibiotic Follow-up Call
New Pediatric Protocols:
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Habit Problems of Childhood
- Muscle Jerks – Tics – Shudders
- Stool – Soiling (Encopresis)
For more details about the Office Hours update, please see these letters from the authors which summarize the changes in this update: Pediatric Office Hours Changes and Adult Office Hours Changes.
Adult Care Advice Handouts
The Adult Clinical Content team completely redid the adult handouts being offered in ClearTriage in 2023. 46 handouts were released in February with Spanish translations of those handouts released in May. 54 additional handouts were released in ClearTriage in October, bringing the total to 100. (Spanish translations of the 54 new handouts are underway.)
For more details about the Adult Care Advice handouts, please see the following documents:
- Adult Care Advice Topics – Update Letter
- Adult Care Advice Topics – Alphabetical Index
- Adult Care Advice Topics – Categorical Index
- STCC Clinical Newsletter – Adult Care Advice Topics
Pediatric Care Advice Handouts
The Pediatric Clinical Content team wrote 72 new handouts in 2023 and updated many existing handouts, bringing the total number of pediatric handouts available to 395. The new handouts were released in October.
For more details about the Pediatric Care Advice handouts, please see the following documents:
- Pediatric Care Advice – Alphabetical Index
- Pediatric Care Advice – Anatomical Index
- Pediatric Care Advice – Behavioral Health Index
2024 Updates
The Schmitt-Thompson Clinical Content teams worked hard in 2023 to bring our customers the highest quality triage decision support content available for telephone triage nurses. And they’ve already started work on the 2024 updates! The team here at ClearTriage looks forward to sharing those updates with you next year.
ClearTriage is a web-based decision support tool for telephone triage nurses and the leading provider of the Schmitt-Thompson telephone triage protocols. ClearTriage offers several technical integrations including SSO, embedding, structured data return, and translation. Contact us to learn more or start your 30-day free trial today.
