Services include: 

• healthcare advice; 
• acute appointment scheduling; 
• referrals to community services; 
• registration for Good Health School classes; and
• physician referrals.

When a person places a call to the SETON Call Center, referral and registration calls go to the resource representatives who screen them for medical urgency, provide class information and registration, non-clinical information and physician referrals as requested. Last year of all the SETON Call Center callers who intended to go to the ER, 62% were redirected to a more appropriate level of care.

Those seeking healthcare advice are transferred to the Call Center's nurses who obtain medical history and perform a telephonic nursing assessment. Based on that assessment, the nurses use an algorithm-based guideline or "decision tree" on their computer, as well as their nursing judgment, to determine what steps the caller should follow. Outcomes range from giving detailed self-care advice to dispatching 9-1-1 for the caller.

Often, Call Center nurses equip callers with the tools to take care of themselves at the time of the call, and over the long-term, change their behaviors by providing health education.

Explore additional information about the triage call center in our links on the left.