Patients are being seen by a primary care physician and given a referral to a specialist for follow up care and diagnosis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes a specialist is seeing a patient and referring that patient to another specialist for follow up care and diagnosis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We are trying to ensure that when that referral is made there is a very efficient and patient friendly process for those follow up visits to be booked in a timely manner\u00a0within our system.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes we will book the follow up visit real time, which works.\u00a0\u00a0 However,\u00a0in many\u00a0instances the patient does not want to book the visit during the current visit and then takes it on themselves to book the follow up specialty appointment.\u00a0\u00a0 At that point we\u00a0sometimes see delay in scheduling, scheduling with the wrong physician or no action by the patient.\u00a0\u00a0We have implemented a variety of different methods to improve this process, but would be interested in\u00a0hearing examples from others\u00a0that have implemented\u00a0good processes that ensure patients who don’t book the referral real time are not getting lost and\u00a0the follow up appointment gets booked timely and with the right physician?\u00a0\u00a0 Also, many times patients following their specialty visits will\u00a0obtain information that requires further decision making or testing.\u00a0\u00a0 At that point we want the original referring physician to be reengaged with the patient along with the information from the specialist to help design a path forward that is efficient and effective and\u00a0that\u00a0makes the patient feel like their care is being guided in partnership with their physician as opposed\u00a0to the patient having to\u00a0determine next steps.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Again, we have worked hard on this issue, but am interested in\u00a0others who have processes that\u00a0can improve upon our efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Improving care coordination between primary care and specialty care to ensure the best possible experience for patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-165","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-mhcdsolutions\/conversation\/mhcd-solutions-ii\/","yoast_head":"\n