Referring physicians

Simple reporting of numeric results is not appropriate because most physicians are not familiar with pattern recognition. A comprehensive interpretation takes into consideration any available clinical and dietary information and other laboratory results, provides possible differential diagnoses, recommendations for additional biochemical testing and confirmatory studies if indicated, as well as contact information for the laboratory director in case the referring physician has additional questions. 

Once the value-added service has been designed, fees established, and the method(s) for compensation selected, the pharmacist must learn how to submit claims. When providers submit claims to Medicare, Medicaid, or any other third-party payers, the claim typically is submitted on the CMS Form 1500. One exception to this is the hospital outpatient clinic, which uses CMS Form 1450. On CMS Form 1500, information regarding the submitting entity, referring physician, type of services offered, and related health condition is included. To convey this type of information, CPT codes and ICD-9-CM codes are used. These coding systems provide detailed information regarding the types of services provided and the specific health condition in a numerical format. Example CMS 1500 and 1450 forms are available on the CMS Web site (www.CMS.hhs.gov). 

Dr. Brouchard develops a referral form for his service and has included fields for the physician s office to complete regarding the type ofinsurance, the policy number, the ICD-9 codes, and the physician s provider number. He plans on requesting that referring physicians complete a referral form for each patient they send to the service. If a patient approaches him directly for the service, he plans on contacting his or her physician... 

Primary care physician (or general practitioner or family doctor) and/or referring physician will be informed of study participation and any significant problems arising during the study. Some subjects may not be comfortable with this requirement, for example in a study of sexually transmitted diseases, they may not wish the doctor, perhaps a family friend, to be aware of their situation. If this is the case, the subject is not eligible for the study as it is vital to confirm history with the primary care physician... 

In addition to obtaining a Medicaid provider number, a pharmacist must produce two other documents prior to providing pharmaceutical care in Mississippi a written evaluation and treatment protocol and a referral from a physician. The protocol must define the collaborative agreement between the pharmacist and the referring physician and be on file with the State Board of Pharmacy. The nature of protocol requirements differs among practice sites. Within an institution, one protocol agreement may be submitted for all the physicians... 

I come to my first analytic hour, but you seem different, you look like Dr. M. [the referring physician]. You lead me into a small room and tell me to undress. I am surprised and ask you whether you re supposed to do that as a classical Freudian. You assure me it is alright. I get undressed and you begin to kiss me all over. Then you finally went down on me. I was pleased, but I kept wondering if it was right. 93... 

Accurate communication is essential when physicians call upon consultants. Evidence used in the interpretations of results by referring physicians should be included in the report to the primary physician, and must be clear when promptly transmitted to the referring physician, and preserved as the patient s medical record. The report should include the images on which the verbal interpretation is based, as well as probability statements regarding the abnormalities or whether the study reveals no abnormalities. 

Every referring physician with a computer, browser and viewing software (and the appropriate password and decryption key) can access and view the studies of his or her patients. In home workstations, a storage capability is not needed, because studies can be retrieved from the server. Only four abilities are needed availability, capability, affability and marketability. Here is how the system operates. Today, every morning the... 

A confidentiality statement. This should include the degree to which the patient s identity could be revealed to an inspecting regulatory authority, and whether information from the clinical study will automatically be communicated to the patient s primary care or referring physician. In any case, there should be an assurance that no patient identity information will be made public. 

Meta J, Seltzer M, Schiepers C, Silverman DH, Arianne-jad M, Gambhir SS, Phelps ME, Valk P, Czernin J (2001) Impact of F-FDG PET on managing patients with colorectal cancer the referring physician s perspective. J Nucl Med 42 586-590... 

Embolotherapy is a delicate balance between safety and efficacy. Therefore, all involved parties (including the interventionist, referring physician and the... 

Appropriateness Discuss indications, risk/ benefits with referring physician, patient/ family. 

Before starting any elective embolization it is important to talk to the patient and obtain informed consent. In talking to the patient, emphasis should not only be on the advantages but also on the risks and complications of embolization therapy. Alternative therapeutic options should be discussed. In both emergency and elective embolization there is no scientific proof that antibiotics should be given prior to embolization. Always work as a team with the referring physician, to have a back-up plan for possible procedure failure or complications. 

While education has always been an important component of our efforts to develop this part of our practice, providing care that meets and exceeds the expectations of our patients and our referring physicians is arguably more important for the longterm success of a UFE service. Acceptable outcomes and future referrals are dependent on our ability to provide excellent patient care and we strive to reach that goal at every step of the process. That is because good outcomes speak for themselves. 

These two outstanding books will certainly meet with high interest from interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons. They - and therefore their patients - will greatly benefit from its contents. Also referring physicians may find these books very useful to learn more about the indications, possibilities and limitations of modern vascular embolotherapy... 

Knowing whether or not the patient is pacemaker dependent is essential to the patient s management when the patient or referring physician calls with a concern about the system or the physician receives notification of a manufacturer s advisory or safety alert. A patient who has never demonstrated asystole, who has always had a stable although slow intrinsic rhythm can be managed on an elective basis if a problem is suspected where as one who is even intermittently pacemaker dependent warrants a relatively urgent evaluation if not further intervention. 

Endocrinology is a medical specialty, and usually patients are referred from other physicians (such as an internist or family physician) for evaluation. The endocrinologist examines the patient and makes a diagnosis. If the referring physician has made a preliminary diagnosis, the endocrinologist often orders further tests to confirm it. The endocrinologist must be well versed in biochemistry and clinical chemistry to properly interpret these tests. 

The converse is, however, also true the awareness of findings, even of medium or low importance, might create distress for patients, such that the referring physician must initiate further workup for those findings. 

Evidence suggests surveillance can be delayed at least three years, subject to individual patient circumstance Communicate to referring physician as per accepted guidelines for communication, such as ACR Practice Guideline for Communication Diagnostic Radiology. Subject to local practice, endoscopic biopsy may be indicated... 

When peripheral CT angiograms are acquired on a routine, daily basis, it is important to establish an efficient and standardized workflow for image acquisition postprocessing, image interpretation, and for communication of imaging findings to the referring physician. 

Besides the detection of pneumonia, the exclusion of pneumonia is a relevant information for the referring physician. Therefore the time point of pneumonia verification (by CXR or microbiology) has been evaluated in (Heussel et al. 1999) to assess the negative predictive value of HRCT. In patients with normal HRCT pneumonia verification happened rarely, slowly, and con-... 

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