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Comments of a Consultant to Primary Care Physicians
George W. Paulson, MD
Columbus, Ohio
Arch Fam Med. 1996;5(7):381-382.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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Medical care can be enhanced if the consultant communicates back to the referring physician. Patients and physicians also benefit when the referring physician communicates with the consultant. Despite such "motherhood and apple pie" truths, consultants are often, even usually, uncer tain about what the referring physician thinks. Theoretically a consultant can call the referring physician before a patient is seen, but that is unusual. A few patients choose not to inform their physician of a planned visit to a consultant and occasionally patients request that the referring physician never be informed of the visit. For all these reasons, as well as the surprisingly rapid changes in just who is considered the primary care physician, communication in both directions is often less than ideal. Primary care physicians may also vary in whether they feel they should telephone
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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