Laurie Wheeler comments on phone triage, and I share some of her reservations. But I *still* miss the triage nurse phone number my HMO had when I lived in Seattle 18 years ago. And we *still* don't have anything approaching systematic triage in our acute care services in my town. It's strictly first come, first serve. Hangnails and ruptured appendices, whoever came in first, gets seen first. The purpose of our HMO triage nurse was to screen calls to PREVENT visits to the doctor when not necessary. Funding schemes would determine whether the service was aimed at generating more visits, or reducing them to a minimum. BTW, I never once in three years used the triage service for a BF problem. Never had any! Rachel Myr, IBCLC and BF counselor relying on empathy, not BTDT for most problems she encounters at work *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html