Ambulance Tasmania goes to market for secondary triage decision support

Ambulance Tasmania has issued a tender for a new secondary triage clinical decision support system to help reduce growth in demand for ambulance services for conditions better managed by primary care.

The system will support a secondary triage model for 000 callers who don't require an emergency ambulance response or transport to ED.

The service will employ registered paramedics and nurses who can clinically assess the needs of low-acuity patients over the phone and divert them to alternative services.

Ambulance Tasmania uses a medical priority dispatch system (MPDS) called ProQ for primary triage, along with an emergency services computer-aided dispatch (ESCAD) system rolled out in 2017 and an NEC/Genesys phone system.

Tasmania recently rolled out an NEC unified communications solution as its Triple Zero emergency response platform, replacing a Telstra analogue telephony system.

The tender calls for a clinical decision software support solution that is commercial off the shelf and has proven capabilities within an operational ambulance service environment.

Ambulance Tasmania says it has a preference for a fully managed end-to-end software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach.

The organisation intends to incorporate a live pilot to provide initial monitoring and evaluation of operations for secondary triage. It is anticipated that secondary triage will manage about 6000 calls a year initially but this is projected to grow.

The contract is expected to start by February next year, with a live pilot in March and full go-live in May.

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