The Nurse Line
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(I have no photo that's appropriate for a post about a nurse line, so here's a photo of some trees.)
I'm going to talk about something other than cabinets today (whaaaa?) Ready?
Though I haven't actually needed to use the hospitals in our area very much (always a lovely thing), the service I've used the most over the years is the nurse line.
Basically, it's a free service that allows you to call and talk to a nurse if you've got a health-related question and it's available 24 hours a day (something like this one offered by Blue Cross).
The nurse line has saved me so much money in pediatric visit/urgent care costs over the last 14 years because after I share my kids' symptoms, they can tell me if it sounds like something that should be seen or not, thus keeping me from making unnecessary trips to the doctor.
And if it's not something that needs immediate attention, they give me a list of symptoms to look for that would signal the necessity of a doctor visit.
Mind you, I'm not at all opposed to spending the money for a pediatric visit if it's necessary, but I really prefer not to do so if the problem is something that should just be treated at home or waited out.
Of course, if one of my kids has a problem that pops up during the day, the nurses at my pediatrician's office are available for calls, but the nurse line is really fabulous for issues that turn up during non-business hours and on weekends.
If you've got a hospital nearby, check and see if they have a nurse line, and if they don't, call or search on the internet to see if your health insurance provider offers one.
Oh, and nurse lines are sometimes helpful for adults too, so even if you haven't got kids, the nurse line might still be able to help you to make more informed decisions about doctor visit.
We have a similar thing in the UK. We can call and talk through symptoms. Although we do not have to pay for doctor visits, it can help to decide whether as you say it should be waited out.
And if time is money, then avoiding unnecessary visit is a fabulous thing. Also, I like that when you stay home from from the peds, you're not exposing your children to other germs (though as I said, that's not enough to keep me away when it's necessary to go!)
Alas, every time we've called and said, "That's not so bad, right?" has resulted in a trip to the ER or the newly-opened urgent care center. But it is nice to know we're not overreacting before we go. Oh, and only one call has ever been for the kids, all the rest have been for me. 😛
Well, at least you found out what you needed to do! One time I called and the nurse told me to call an ambulance, so that does happen to me sometimes too.
One way to look at it is that maybe I'm just more paranoid than you are and so I call for less important stuff! =P
It takes a burden off the health care system as well (I'm a nurse) when you have people showing up at the ER because they have a cold it takes a lot more time and money than if they had called a nurse help-line.
Yes, yes, yes! Nurse lines are great and will help you avoid unnecessary trips to the doctor's office or urgent care center. Nurse lines are often offered through your insurance company, and I like these best. The nurses are trained to work from "decision trees" (good photo choice 🙂 ) that guide them through your symptoms: Fever, yes or no? If yes, how many days have you had it? And so on.
Nurse lines can save insurance companies money. But that does not mean they will prevent you from getting the care you need. There is no incentive for them to make you wait and get more sick; that just costs more. So you can trust they will give you the best advice they can.
Nurses in doctors' offices (and I was one for many years) do not have that same kind of training. Almost invariably they will tell you to just make an appointment, whether you really need it or not.
Yeah, that's been my experience with the nurses at my peds office too...they revert to, "Come in and be seen." awfully quickly.
Yes, nurses lines are great! If you're calling at night, just make sure they are the ones offered through your insurance company. These nurses are actually paid to be up and available for these phone calls. Calling the NP/PA/fellow/resident overnight through your doctor's office is actually a totally different thing - usually it's unpaid and done when the practitioner should be sleeping and has a full day of work the next day. As a former fellow who was on call every night for a year, the numerous calls (98% of which were not emergent) became quite trying! Insurance lines are an independent source and a great alternative.
Yes! I like that I don't have to wake anyone up to get help in the middle of the night.
The other hotline that I really appreciate is the poison control center. They were soooo helpful, once, when my twins were toddlers. It was a weekend (of course, these things always happen on weekends or at night), and one of my 10-month old toddlers had managed to find a rhododendron blossom to chew on (rhodies are poisonous).
I called the poison control center, and the man at the other end asked me a bunch of questions, had me check my daughter for symptoms of toxic ingestion, and gave me a list of instructions and what to look for over the course of the afternoon and evening. He phoned me back, twice, just to check, and reassure me that rhodies have to be consumed in larger quantities than my daughter likely did, to be toxic. He was a calming influence, when I was a panicking mom.
FYI, the national Poison Help hotline is 1-800-222-1222. Add it to your contact list!
oops! Sorry for the double comment--my computer has had a bad case of hiccups this morning 🙂
I've had to call them too, because once when Joshua was little, he drank some laundry detergent (he came and told me and said, "Mommy, that was some horrible tasting juice!")
I accidentally tripled the dose of Tylenol for my daughter (we were away from home and I didn't have my handy dandy medicine measuring spoon with me and somehow translated teaspoon as tablespoon). D'oh!
We've had one trip to A&E years ago (UK equivalent of ER) due to first-born sucking the nozzle on some anti-bac cleaner I'd just put down on the counter (no longer use the stuff!). They were great and explained the projectile vomiting was much more likely due to the parmesan she'd had over her pasta lunchtime! Oh well, better safe than sorry!
I've called poison controll three times in eight years those people are great
For your readers from Ontario, Canada, we have "Telehealth Ontario".
Since medicare is "free" (meaning built into your taxes) you don't save any money by using this service, although it does save time/gas/parking/transit/taxi cost. The other advantage is you avoid going to a hospital or doctors office where you can get sick, or sick and die (C. Difficile)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/court-approves-9m-settlement-over-deadly-c-difficile-outbreak-at-ontario-hospital/article7131094/
We have Blue Cross Blue Shield and have used their nurseline several times, which has been helpful. However, the most helpful resource for me has been our pediatrician's after-hours phone lines. These RN's are paid to do this and work from a computerized decision tree. If you have this resource, it might be better, as I think they are more skilled in assessing pediatric needs. Both resources have been very empathetic--it's nice when healthcare workers show their hearts.
Exactly! We have a great ped office - so even at night time - i call the office and they xfer the calls to the nurses on call. I make appts if the kids need to go in the morning, etc - or head to the ER if necessary. I LOVE nurse lines! Also - I love the national poison control line. Those nurses are WONDERFUL! When mine were super little I had one who ate everything and I was on the phone with them a lot!
In Ontario we have Tele-Health, 1-866-797-0000, its not related to any particular hospital or region, just a general helpline. I think its a great idea, sometimes its a great source of information, and better than just googling symptoms online.
Another money saving thing we have found is a pediatric "afterhours" clinic. It's like Urgent care, but specifically for pediatrics. The wait is much shorter than the ER (and they can really do alot-- ours ran an IV once! And a friend's child had an Xray.) The BEST part is that it only costs us a regular copay ($15) vs an emergency room visit ($100!)
For adults, our insurance allows us to go to the CVS minute clinic with NO copay. We found these things out by reading our insurance paperwork thoroughly and asking around!
I can imagine this must be so helpful when you have kids. My dad is a technically a doctor (but he hasn't practiced for years) so he acts as a kind of unofficial "doctor line" for our whole family. It's very handy 🙂
We have similar with Kaiser Permanente, and I have used it very successfully after, oops, cutting off a small tip of my finger with a knife. After being assured I wouldn't bleed to death or die from a subsequent infection (I may have panicked just a smidge!), I followed the nurse's advice and ended up healing just fine, trip to Urgent Care, and corresponding co-payment, avoided. Yeah!
The nurse line is great. I'm always recommending it to my co-workers, who almost never follow through with my suggestion. It's a great way to figure out if you really need to go to the doctor. But running off to the doctor isn't my first response most of the time anyway.
Flickr is great if you can find a photo by the way. Some photos are posted there with the author granting permission for reuse. Many photographers there will gladly let you use a photo for a personal blog if you email them.
I don't have kids, but I've used a nurse line for myself. A couple years ago, my jaw wouldn't close all the way and I was freaking out!! The nurse I talked to was so helpful and helped calm me down a bit. In the end, it was probably TMJ. Anytime I look up stuff online it seems like it always goes to the worst possible thing. Totally recommend these lines as well!
hi kristen.
here in sweden we also have a nurse line,only call 1177,and there will be a nure answering! have used it several times!
We wind up bugging some people with medical credentials in the extended family a lot for precisely this reason. It's probably saved us from several ER visits.