Consult Necessity and Follow-up

What Works: Effective Practices for Office-based CareReferrals
Consult Necessity and Follow-up

Recommendation: Patients are notified of necessity for specialist visit and subsequent findings.

Source: CRICO/RMF


 Effective Practice
Referral Process. The system steps include:
  • Providers use the EMR to order referrals to specialists within and without of the network.
  • EMR now has a referral reconciliation program which is utilized by the referral coordinators to create a working template for scheduling all appointments. The program is used for referrals needed within 30 days.
  • All contact information is on the working template and the report is reconciled monthly by the referral coordinator and sent to the pratice manager.
  • The referral coordinator will make three attempts to contact the patient to re-schedule an appointment; if unsuccessful, then a registered letter is sent to the patient and the PCP is notified.
  • The consult report is sent to the ordering provider for acknowledgement then if necessary, scanned into the medical record.
Benefits:
  • Promotes coordination of care throughout multiple disciplines.
  • Enables reconciliation of referrals.
In practice at: HVMA Burlington, Kenmore, Lynnfield, Peabody


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