Has anyone here ever done phone triage or worked for an insurance company?

I worked in two different healthcare systems in their phone triage departments. One big system called it the “Medical Advice Service (MAS) and the other just called it “Telephone Triage”. The two different services were distinctly different. I enjoyed both jobs but they varied in many important ways. Both were good services, but each had different levels of support. One was strongly template driven and had an office separate from the hospital. There was always at least one physician in our office at all times and we consulted with the doc about patients who didn’t conform to the template. All of the nurses had extensive Emergency Department experience. The other service was adjacent to the ED and we did
calls as well as ED walk-up patients. The latter service always felt as if we didn’t have enough support. One very helpful practice was that each day we had appointments reserved for our use. We could usually send patients to the adjacent medical office building to be seen right away by Family Practice docs when our assessment didn’t warrant ED care. My point is that services and medical assistance vary wildly from place-to-place. If you’re interested in a position make sure to ask many questions. Your license could be endangered in a poorly run or resource poor department. I hope that this helps. It’s a job where you’ll need to be on your toes at all times, but I enjoyed both jobs. Good luck in finding a position. They’re a great spot for experienced nurses who aren’t able to physically perform more actively in a busy hospital department.