DSHI Systems' Veterans Health Gateway™ (VHG) is a clinical software application used by nurses who provide telephone
triage services to veterans. VHG supports nurse clinical decision-making
by systematically assessing a veteran's symptoms, while providing
reference health information during the process. At the end of the
triage process, VHG provides a triage follow-up recommendation, as
well as self-care or interim-care instructions. The systems sorts
patients into 7 distinct urgency levels: 911, <2 hours, 2-8 hours,
12-24 hours, 2-3 days, 1-2 weeks, and self-care. The encounter documentation
is automatically performed in the background during the triage process
and saved as a triage encounter record. VHG has been shown to appropriately
identify emergencies, while reducing unnecessary clinic visits.
VHG provides over 300 symptom/condition-based triage algorithms
and comprehensive patient education information (see below). The
system also includes an easy-to-use clinical reporting tool, called
the Data Viewer, which provides administrators with access to individual
reports and standard aggregate reports. The Data Viewer also allows
administrators to build custom reports.
Workflow
The nurse accesses a veteran's record in VistA, using Document
Storage Systems' TeleCare Record Manager (TRM), VHG creates the clinical encounter
record, and TRM records the encounter in VistA. Reference information
can be reviewed on-screen, printed, or copied and pasted for faxing
or e-mailing.
Benefits
Increase triage accuracy
Increase triage consistency
Shorten triage time
Automated documentation
Improved quality of care
Emergent conditions are appropriately
identified and referred to the emergency department
Inappropriate emergency department
visits are avoided
Inappropriate clinic appointments
are reduced as patients are directed to self-care
Health Information Libraries
The triage interview and assessments are supported by expansive libraries of
additional health information, including over 7,000 topics and thousands of images.
The most common topics are written in two reading levels: college and grade school.
