Orange County NC Website
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: December 6, 2004 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. .5 - 1 <br />SUBJECT: Agreement with UNC Health Link far After Hours Nurse Triage Services for <br />Primary Care <br />DEPARTMENT: Health PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Agreement <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Rosemary Summers, ext 2411 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To approve an agreement with UNC Health Link for After Hours Nurse Triage <br />Services far Primary Care Services. <br />BACKGROUND: The Health Department will begin to provide 'preventive primary care' <br />services for patients enrolled in the Department's traditional prevention programs (Family <br />Planning, Well Child services, Maternity) an January 3, 2005 as approved during the 2004-2005 <br />budget discussions. One of the requirements to offer this program is to have after-hours <br />consultation services available for patients, Attached is an agreement with UNC HealthLink to <br />provide part of these services, This service is utilized by a number of private practices as well <br />as all of the UNC medical practices, UNC HealthLink is a nurse triage service that operates <br />from widely accepted adult and pediatric protocols and will provide guidance and consultation <br />via telephone to patients with an urgent or emergent condition. The Health Department will <br />provide information to patients on this after-hours service as part of each patient's first contact <br />with the Department for service. Depending on the patient's situation, he or she may be <br />counseled on home treatment, advised to be seen the next day in the Department's office, or <br />referred to the emergency department for evaluation/treatment, On occasion, the Health <br />Department back-up, on-call provider (nurse practitioner or physician) may be paged to provide <br />consultation to the patient, <br />The cast of the service is $392 per month for asix-month total of $2,352 (January 3, 2004 <br />through June 30, 2004). There will be additional charges if patients call the service on holidays, <br />Specific charges are detailed in Appendix A to the Agreement. <br />This service was accounted for in the budgetary estimates of providing this service, <br />