2. Triage

Triage improves timely and appropriate access to multidisciplinary care for the person, their family and carers.

Action

Processes are in place to facilitate timely referral and access for further and thorough end of life and/or palliative care needs assessment, including by specialist palliative care services, when indicated.

Evidence

Optimal triage facilitates the right care being provided to the right person, at the right time, by the right service or health professional.

Considerations and resources

Establishing integrated and multidisciplinary care pathways, inclusive of (but not limited to) general practitioners, NSW Ambulance and strategic partners (e.g. residential aged care facilities), ensures timely assessment, treatment, referrals and transfers of care.

Using virtual care

Referrers should consider the questions and use the tools and information below when providing virtual palliative and end-of-life care.

Inform the patient, their family or carer of the virtual care modalities available, and document their preferences. Based on availability and mutual agreement, this could include their ability and willingness to travel due to wellbeing, ease and cost of travel, personal and family commitments, spiritual needs, and available technology. More on consumer support.

Make the patient aware of how to change an appointment type when mutually suitable alternatives are available. This will vary depending on the specific service.

Does the patient need an interpreter? Consider whether an in-person interpreter is needed, or whether it would be equally efficient to include the interpreter in virtual care appointments.

Does the patient, family or carer need support to navigate the virtual care platform? Consider the need for additional clinician, family or carer to be available to support the patient. Provide virtual care education resources as required.

What happens if the patient, family, or carer deteriorates, or the technology fails while I’m providing care virtually? Each team should have its own protocols for escalating care or managing technology failures during an appointment. Measures could include:

• Confirming the patient’s address and contact number at the start of any consult
• Being able to call an ambulance or other emergency service
• Organising an urgent visit
• Contacting a family member
• Enacting the backup process if the connectivity is poor or the technology fails

More about consumer support

For more virtual care resources, see:

• Virtual care in practice guide
  Information to support healthcare providers to deliver virtual care.
• Virtual care palliative care resources for clinicians and consumers
  Resources supporting health professionals, patients, families and carers to access and use virtual care as part of palliative care.