If you receive a call from an Emergency Department regarding an unfamiliar patient and

1. this patient is new to your practice,
2. the patient is someone listed on your managed care panel but whom you have not yet seen, or
3. you are on that day's ED on-call list, your responsibilities are, basically, the same. When you are called, you are required to make and document appropriate decisions about the care of the patient and convey those decisions to appropriate personnel.

Find out as much about the patient's condition as possible. Under federal law, ED personnel must do a medical screening on all patients to determine whether an emergency condition exists before asking the patient about insurance coverage. Depending on the medical situation, you can then decide what would be the most appropriate course of treatment:

• Have the ED personnel treat the patient with your consultation and have the patient call your office for follow-up
• Ask the ED personnel to call in a specialist to treat the patient and have the patient call the specialist's office to schedule a follow-up appointment if necessary
• Decide to go to the emergency department to treat that patient.