Nurse Triage for Physician-Owned Practices
Hospital-owned and investor-backed groups give their patients a 24/7 nurse line. Your independent practice can too, without hiring a nurse team to staff it. PCTS registered nurses handle your clinical calls after hours and during the day, on your protocols, and you pay only for the calls we handle.
Independent practice is harder than it used to be
The share of U.S. physicians working in private practice fell from 60.1% in 2012 to 42.2% in 2024, while the share in hospital-owned practices rose to 34.5%, according to the American Medical Association's Physician Practice Benchmark Survey.
Physician owners carry costs that larger systems spread across thousands of patients, and after-hours coverage is one of the heaviest: either the physicians take the calls themselves, or the practice pays nurses to wait by the phone. Outsourcing triage removes both.
of physicians worked in private practice in 2024
in 2012
Source: AMA Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, Physician Practice Characteristics in 2024.
What physician owners get
Your nights back
In a physician-owned practice, the owner is often the one on call. Our nurses resolve most calls and reach your on-call physician only when your criteria are met.
No idle payroll
An in-house nurse line pays for every quiet hour. Per-call pricing means the money your practice spends follows the calls your patients actually make.
Patients who stay
Patients who reach a nurse at night get directed to the right care and stay connected to your practice, instead of finding their answers somewhere else.
System-grade operations
SOC 2 Type II audited, HIPAA compliant, documentation into Epic, Cerner or athenahealth, and RNs licensed in all 50 states and DC.
For every kind of physician-owned practice
Nurse triage for independent practices: common questions
Do we keep control of how calls are handled?
Yes. Our nurses use Schmitt-Thompson protocols aligned to your standing orders, and your escalation criteria decide when your on-call physician is contacted. You set the rules; we follow them on every call.
Do we have to change our answering service?
No. Your answering service stays the entry point and keeps handling routine calls. The calls that are clinical in nature come through to our registered nurses.
What does it cost an independent practice?
You pay per call handled: $23–$27 per call for most California practices, and $24.50 or less in many other states. There is no nurse payroll to carry through quiet nights.
How quickly can we start?
In days, not the months it takes to recruit and train an internal triage team.
Are we too small for a triage service?
No. PCTS serves physician-owned practices of every size, from solo physicians to multi-site groups. Because you pay per call, a small practice pays only for the calls it actually has.
See What Triage Costs When You Don't Staff for Idle Time
Use our Build vs Buy calculator to compare internal staffing costs against an outsourced model built for redundancy and scale.