What is Total Triage?
A total triage model introduces eConsult as the main route for accessing help or an appointment. Practices review eConsults as they come in and respond to all eConsults within an agreed time scale (e.g. same day) or by the end of the next working day.
How does eConsult facilitate a Total Triage Model?
Capturing structured data from patients with 80+ condition specific templates allows for over 70% of eConsults to be dealt with remotely
Built-in safety netting allows eConsults to be sorted based on their clinical need, allowing for patients to be triaged by urgency, rather than first come first serve
Our Smart Inbox is purpose-built platform for managing online consultations and digital triage at scale
Our eConsult Lite feature allows you to capture digitally excluded/disadvantaged patients into the same triage queue
Our Urgent Acceptance feature allows you to choose whether to accept urgent eConsults into your triage queue, or direct patients most in need to call into the practice
The Benefits
Patients get a quick response when using digital, building trust in online consultation
Improved access for patients and zero pressure on the phones (our practices have seen an 85% reduction in call volumes between 8-9am)
Patients are seen based on clinical need
Better resource of practice staff and time
Reduce appointment wait time
Reduce DNAs
Total Triage Workflow
Total Triage Timeline
What is our Smart Inbox?
A purpose-built platform for digital triage & online consultation management
Reduces reliance on third party software and is built for quick triage decision making
Boosts productivity & foster better collaboration between healthcare & practice professionals
Facilitates a total triage model
Included free of charge in your standard eConsult licence
Preparing patients for change
4-Step Marketing Technique
Key Messages to Convey
Speaking to and promoting eConsult to patients at every opportunity is the most effective way to introduce a total triage model.
eConsult is a more convenient way to get help from your surgery: for your condition, symptoms or for administrative requests. Using eConsult allows them to explain why they want an appointment - they don’t have to explain everything within the first few minutes of an appointment
The practice can then decide how best to help you - you may not even need to come in to the surgery
After your eConsult, the practice will get back in touch and let you know what the next steps are
No more 8am rush: Guildhall's eConsult story
Kevin Root, Practice Manager at Guildhall Surgery in Folkestone, shared their transformative experience of using eConsult to go from surviving to thriving:
Call volumes between 8am and 9am have reduced by 85%
Significantly improved staff morale across the practice
Shift from harsh patient criticism to positive praise
“We no longer have the 8am rush, it just doesn’t exist.”
"Our call volumes have fallen dramatically. We’ve seen a reduction of more than 50% in overall call volumes, and calls between 8am and 9am have reduced by 85%.
Before the change, we would often have 130 calls recorded before 10am. Today (Monday 24th March 2025), we had only 21 calls over that period, and 50% of them were simply sent the link to do an eConsult!
As calls have reduced, some staff have been moved off the phones, but even so average wait times over the week are now 3-4 minutes. The extreme peaks of up to 20-minutes that we had before have disappeared completely." - Kevin Root, PM
Read the full case study here
Want to speak to a member of our team about transitioning to a total triage model? Get in touch via our live chat in the bottom right corner, or email us at practice.support@econsult.health 👋