Nurse Triage Contact Center

Purpose

To provide consisted symptom based triage and maintain processes in timely manner during software downtime.
This procedure provides nurse triage with general guidelines for handling calls during scheduled or unscheduled downtime.

Standard

1.    In the event of Epic Downtime, scheduled or unscheduled, nurses triage is expected to immediately inform his/her manager of the event.
2.    The Nurse Triage manager carries responsibility of conforming the downtime with IT support services and communicating back to the team.
3.    There two types of Epic scheduled and unscheduled downtime, Shadow Read only and shadow Read Write.
4.    Calls are triaged using Schmitt Thompson protocols, which are maintain in hard copy and are located on carts behind nurse triage desk.
5.    In the event of Shadow read only
Nursing triage may not triage symptoms based calls without protocols.
There are three forms are used by nurse triage during downtime scheduled or unscheduled of shadow ready only and they kept in the business continuity and downtime

folder and in each desktop of nurse triage computer.

5.1    Downtime Nurse Triage Call Log which contains the call time, name of caller, and reason for call.
5.2    Downtime Nurse Triage Patient Encounter Form which contains caller demographic data and the nursing assessment questionnaire.
5.3    Downtime Nurse Triage Call Back Form which contains information for follow-up on calls; reason, phone number, and message.
After Epic downtime recovered all downtime forms scanned into Epic.

6.    In the event of shadow Read Write: nurse triage caregivers can document normally into Epic and data will be synced to the live environment at the end of the

downtime.

Oversight and Responsibility
1.    The Contact Center manager, Nursing Quality and Clinical Nursing is responsible for the oversight of this policy.
2.    The Contact Center Lead Triage Nurse is responsible for updating the Business Continuity and Downtime folder.
3.    All Contact Center Nurse Triage staff RNs are responsible for implementing this policy within the contact Center.

Definitions

1.    Downtime:  Time during which the electronic information system is unavailable.

2.    Scheduled Downtime:  Planned system outage for maintenance or upgrade, which is scheduled and communicated in advance.

3.    Unscheduled Downtime:  Unforeseen outage due to a system failure.

4.    Shadow Read Only (SRO) environment: Back-up read only snapshot of Epic that allows nurse triage to review Epic but all documentation must be done on paper.

5.    Shadow Read Write (SRW) environment: A back-up snapshot of live environment will allows caregivers to document normally into Epic, and later at the end of

downtime data will be synced into Epic.

References
1.    CCAD Downtime Policy
2.    Protocol Software Downtime, Cleveland clinic Ohio, 20th may 2014 reviewed.

Institute / Department / Committee Involved in Protocol Development / Revision
Contact Center Nurse Triage Team

Contact for Questions / Clarifications
Nurse Triage Team

Related or Supporting Documents