RE: example of bad referral

[Guest guest]

Not offensive and unfortunately true sometimes. However, the advantage to being

at the end of the funnel, is that what is often not at all clear in the PCP

office becomes or is obvious later. Be happy you have us to take care of the

rest, for every one of these there are 50 that you don't " have to waste your

time on. " I would guess these two examples stick in your mind, but are not

representative of most referals.

When I send referals it is usually because I want something done that I can not

do, not because I don't have the diagnosis, or need the test to decide the

exact. I use to tell the residents that is much easier to treat the right

diagnosis.

________________________________

From: on behalf of neurologymp

Sent: Mon 1/7/2008 7:44 PM

To:

Subject: example of bad referral

A few days back, someone asked for an example of what we considered to

be a " bad " referral. It usually means the referring provider (we have

many " providers " rather than physicians in our area) put no thought

into it-- headaches that began in the setting or significant

psychosocial stressors (i.e. real examples-- the patient was raped,

lost a spouse, relative committed suicide) Or a routine referral for

something that was urgent (i.e. referral for temporal arteritis that

wasn't faxed until 2 days after the patient was seen in that

provider's office or the patient who practically crawled into the

office because he became rapidly unnable to walk over the course of a

week (cancer causing cord compresison). A referral is rarely a bad one

if the referring provider took a reasonable history. Hope that post

wasn't offensive.

[Guest guest]

Do you

ever call the provider back and say, “You know, in the future this should

be an emergency. Feel free to call if you ever have questions about getting a

patient seen immediately.” I think gentle education (both about the

condition and your desiring of a great relationship with the referral providers)

might be helpful. If they shun you, at least you held out the olive branch.

example of bad referral

A few days back, someone asked for an example of what we considered to

be a " bad " referral. It usually means the referring provider (we have

many " providers " rather than physicians in our area) put no thought

into it-- headaches that began in the setting or significant

psychosocial stressors (i.e. real examples-- the patient was raped,

lost a spouse, relative committed suicide) Or a routine referral for

something that was urgent (i.e. referral for temporal arteritis that

wasn't faxed until 2 days after the patient was seen in that

provider's office or the patient who practically crawled into the

office because he became rapidly unnable to walk over the course of a

week (cancer causing cord compresison). A referral is rarely a bad one

if the referring provider took a reasonable history. Hope that post

wasn't offensive.