About Sheila Quilter Wheeler, RN, MS, Nurse Triage Innovator & Developer
As a general policy, Wheeler extrapolates research outcomes from established clinical evidence and relies on foundational clinical sources for standards. TeleTriage Systems components (guidelines, training, documentation form, standards) are based on foundational sourced clinical evidence .
By collaboratively building better components with other triage experts and front-line nurses, Wheeler began the process of creating a nurse- driven telephone triage system with the secondary goal of “making it easy to do the right thing” (Institute of Medicine, 2000).
Over several decades, Ms. Wheeler collaborated with nurse-experts and practitioners to develop a complete triage system — a structure and process with clearly defined safe outcomes. The system serves as evidence — that every effort was made to meet the duty of due care - legal “layers of protection” in work defined as “making decisions under conditions of uncertainty and urgency” (Patel & Lephrohon, 1995).
After graduating from University of California, San Francisco, Ms. Wheeler launched TeleTriage Systems. In the 1990’s, she began serving as an expert witness on malpractice cases related to pre-hospital triage - a turning point in her career.
Over a period of 30 years, while consulting on 35 nurse triage malpractice cases, Ms. Wheeler began to recognize patterns of recurrent common nurse triage error. She set about devising solutions to these recurrent errors, integrating solutions into the design of both the overall system as well as the system components.
Recognized Innovations & Track Record
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Nurse Triage Clinical Trainer (1985 -2023)
DOWNLOAD FREE CONTENT Risk Management, Advanced Practice, Nurse Triage Protocols & Guidelines, and Decisionmaker Safety Research.
Wild Iris CE Course online
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Nurse Triage Guideline Developer
First Nurse -led and -developed Age-specific, 5-level, Triage Guidelines - three volumes (1995 -2023).
FREE Guideline downloads, plus 1993 Training Manual with 20 audlinks to real life case studies
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ED Nurse Telephone Triage 1989 Survey
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Founder of First Telephone Triage Conference (1994- 2001) Archival link:
Wheeler founded the first three-day, three-site, national Telephone Triage Conference (6,000+ participants), program developer, presenting & moderating.
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First Nurse Triage Website
Archival articles from www.teletriage.com (1998-2023) on a range of teletriage topics. The Internet Archive (known as the Wayback Machine),, is a digital library of Internet sites, dating from 1998.
Clients & Collaborators
Ms. Wheeler has worked collaboratively with clients from a range of settings: academia, medicine, software companies, military facilities and health maintenance organizations. She has consulted internationally and worked with experts from relevant clinical disciplines.
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AAACN Conference
2014-2015 - UCSF Ambulatory Care Clinics
2013 - Sutter Health Clinical Call Center
2010 - SF Dept. Public Health, Telephone Triage Training
2011 - Telephone Triage for Physicians, Keck School of Medicine, USC, Los Angeles
2014 - Sutter Health, Preceptor Training and Consultation
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Calgary Health Link, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Hospital Authority, Hong Kong, China
Presentation: Safety in Teletriage, to Physicians in Bhopal, India
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Martin Army Hospital, Ft. Benning, GA
Veteran’s Administration: Omaha, Nebraska
Lemoore Naval Air Station, Lemoore, CA
Offutt Air Force Base, NB
Langley AFB, VA
Pt. Hueneme Naval Base, CA
Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ
Beale AFB, CA
Walson Air Force Base, New Jersey
Veteran’s Administration Medical Center (San Francisco, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Fresno, Hawaii,
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Massachusetts General Internal Medicine Associates
St. Mary’s Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
Children’s Hospital, Minnesota
Kalamazoo Center for Medical studies, Kalamazoo, MI
Santa Barbara Public Health Department, Santa Barbara
Nurseweek Seminar, Los Angeles, CA
Lorman Education Services, Eau Claire, WI
Emergency Nurses Association, Management Conference, CA
Oregon Medical Group, OR
Care Management Resources, MD
Pediatric Partners, San Francisco
Healthcare Partners, Los Angeles
Midland Hospital, TX
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals: Boston; Chicago
Marin Community Clinic, CA
Marin Maternity Services, CA
OrNda Healthcorp, CA
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, CA
Stanford Health System, CA
Kaiser Permanente: San Diego, Los Angeles, South San Francisco, Oakland, San Rafael, Cleveland
Future of Ambulatory Nursing - San Francisco General Hospital
Telephone Triage - Crisis Intervention. Emergency Nurses Scientific Assembly, New Orleans
Ambulatory OB/GYN Nursing Conference, San Francisco
HealthLine Corporation, CA
Cigna Healthcare, AZ
Palo Alto Medical Foundation, CA
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1994 – 2001 Founder, Chairperson, Speaker: “Telephone Triage: Essentials for Expert Practice”, first 3-site national clinical telephone triage conference, 6,000 attendees
1994 - American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, San Diego, CA
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1986-1990 - Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Heights, OH
CE COURSE ON-SITE TRAINING
CLIENT FEEDBACK
“Your work is a godsend. I am truly grateful to have found it. Thank you for all you do.” D.L, RN, MSN, PHN. California.
Feedback from 120 nurses attending a 2016 day-long Telephone Triage training near Washington, DC at a State Health Agency Regional Office
Learned a lot. Can’t think of anything that was missing.
I loved it!
Excellent content!
Such a great day with much needed information!
I didn’t want to miss anything!
Great job!
Information clear and needed!
NURSE TRIAGE CLINICAL RESOURCES
Six+ CE Courses: Books or long articles, post test & answer key.
Risk Management Part 1, 2, 3
Nurse Triage: Essentials of Expert Practice (2020 - 2026) Update to 1993 Training Manual, “Telephone Triage, Theory, Practice and Protocol Development”
Decisionmaking Safety (2015) - Research Article from Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare (Cited in 50+ Research articles)
Protocol Competency (2017-2025)
Historic Nurse Triage CE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS INTERNET ARCHIVE
Influencers
Barbara Siebelt, RN - Nurse Triage Systems as Evidence of Duty of Due Care in Mapractice Cases
Robert Smith, JD - The importance of a Systematic Approach - “not just bits and pieces”
Jeff Clawson, MD - Mentor, Emergency Medical Dispatch Pioneer
National Academy of Medicine - Previously Institute of Medicine, System Error
Carolyn Smith Marker, RN, MSN - Nurse Triage Standards
Vimla Patel, PhD - Medical decisionmaking expert on Nurse Triage decisions under conditions of Uncertainty and Urgency
Steve Jobs - User Friendly Design, Visionary
William Langeweische - Writer/Airline Pilot, System Error, Airline Industry as Safety Model for Healthcare Industry
Robert Pantell MD -Co- Author, Pediatric Triage Guidelines for Parents, Guideline Reviewer
Avedis Donabedian, MD - Quality Pioneer, Process + Structure = Quality Outcomes
Atul Gawande, MD. Pioneer, Safety in Surgery. Author, Checklist Manifesto
Laura Mahlmeister, RN, PhD - Nurse Legal Consultant, Co-Author