Guidelines aim to improve communications between hospital and community physicians
The partnership between physicians at Cincinnati Children’s and referring primary care providers (PCPs) in the community is important – especially when it comes to ensuring a patient’s continuity of care. To strengthen this partnership, a Referring Physician Task Force was formed. The task force is made up of faculty physicians, community pediatricians and administrative hospital employees, who agreed that their first area of focus should be communications between the medical center and PCPs in the community.
“The task force narrowed the scope of their efforts to communication with PCPs when their patients are admitted,” says Derek Wheeler, MD, Chief of Staff, and medical staff president. “Because of the lack of standardization and guidelines defining when and who should contact the PCPs about their patients, communication was sporadic. Based on previous work from the Medical Staff Communications Committee, they developed a set of guiding principles that will clarify the process.”
Many physicians will find the principles to be second nature, but the aim is to distribute them broadly across the medical center so everyone is following the same guidelines.
“I hope our staff will use them to complement their best judgment when reaching out to community physicians,” says Wheeler. “We also intend to share them with new faculty and trainees.”
