SCHMITT-THOMPSON PROTOCOLS
THE GOLD STANDARD
ClearTriage uses the Schmitt-Thompson telephone triage protocols (also known as telephone triage guidelines), which are widely accepted as the standard for telephone triage care. These triage protocols are used in more than 25 million calls each year and by more than 90% of medical triage call centers in North America. They reduce unnecessary ED visits and are an important strategy in health care reform.
Books containing a subset of these protocols are published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and in their 16th and 4th editions, respectively.
REGULAR UPDATES AND REVIEWS
Dr. Schmitt and Dr. Thompson review and update each of the existing triage protocols and care advice on a yearly basis. Their review includes input from users, quality improvement projects, research, literature reviews and feedback from review panels with experience in telephone triage. These panels are comprised of triage nurses, specialty nurses, call center medical directors, primary care physicians, emergency physicians and physician specialists.
Approximately 15 new protocols are also developed each year using an evidenced-based and referenced process.
WHO IS DOCTOR SCHMITT?
Barton Schmitt, MD, FAAP wrote the first book on pediatric telephone triage in 1980. He founded and served as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Call Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado from 1988 to 2018. This call center covers evening and weekend calls for over 500 pediatricians, more than 100 of which use ClearTriage while their practices are open. Dr. Schmitt currently serves as a Quality Improvement Advisor for the Pediatric Call Center.
- Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
- Attending Physician and Pediatric Resident Coach, Child Health Clinic, Children’s Hospital Colorado
- Author of five integrated sets of clinical content for use in software:
- Pediatric Telephone Triage Protocols / Guidelines for after-hours triage/advice nurses
- Pediatric Telephone Triage Protocols / Guidelines for office-hours triage/advice nurses
- Pediatric Symptom Checker: web-based and mobile self-triage and self-care guides for parents
- Pediatric Care Advice: after care instruction handouts for parents on 300 common pediatric health problems
- SymptomScreen Screening Guides: rapid screening and prioritization for unlicensed call center staff
- Author of more than 100 articles and books for physicians, nurses, and parents
- The first book on pediatric telephone triage (Pediatric Telephone Advice, 1980), 3rd edition in 2004
- Telephone triage book for office practices (Pediatric Telephone Protocols), published by the AAP, 16th edition in 2018
- Two award-winning child care books for parents: Your Child’s Health and My Child is Sick!
Honors from the American Academy of Pediatrics: Received the AAP C. Anderson Aldrich award for contributions in Child Development in 1994. Received the AAP Education award for contributions in Pediatric Education in 2004.
WHO IS DOCTOR THOMPSON?
David Thompson, MD, FACEP is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine. He serves as part-time faculty attending in the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Emergency Department.
- Strong interests in the areas of telephone triage, quality improvement, and patient satisfaction, including:
- Benchmarking work with medical call centers, aggregating data from more than 5 million telephone triage calls
- Chair and/or member of hospital-based and national quality assurance committees
- Development of databases and educational tools to promote quality improvement for medical call centers and emergency departments
- Author of two integrated sets of clinical content for use in telephone triage software:
- Adult Telephone Triage Protocols / Guidelines for after-hours triage/advice nurses
- Adult Telephone Triage Protocols / Guidelines for office-hours triage/advice nurses
- Author of Adult Telephone Protocols which is published by the AAP and currently in its 4th edition
- Author of numerous medical articles, with several in two fields of special research interest to him: patient satisfaction and chief complaint coding
- Lecturer in the areas of telephone triage, professional coding, quality improvement, and patient satisfaction
