Page 39 - Avoiding Surgical Mishaps Part 1

SVMIC Avoiding Surgical Mishaps: Dissecting the Risks

accept.

• In all instances, clarify the role of each physician in the
patient’s care.

If the patient cancels or fails to keep the initial appointment, take

appropriate steps to contact the patient (commensurate with
the consequences of failure to receive needed treatment). Notify

the referring physician and include any plan to reschedule or
attempt to contact the patient further. You may do this by simply

noting the no-show or cancellation on the original request for
consultation document and mailing or faxing it back to the

referring physician. You may also call the physician or the office
and document who was notified. Many offices have a template

or form letter that is faxed or mailed to the referring physician as
notification of the cancellation or no-show. If appropriate, have

your office make an attempt to reschedule the appointment with
the patient. All of these communications should be recorded

and kept in the medical record.

Communicating the Handoff

As mentioned earlier in this presentation, although physician to
patient communication related to informed consent ranked as

the primary issue in communication failures for surgeons, the
second most common issue is the communication between

providers, such as when one physician is handing off care to
another physician. This case study will outline one such scenario

that created a situation which resulted in a lawsuit.

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