Page 71 - Avoiding Surgical Mishaps Part 1

SVMIC Avoiding Surgical Mishaps: Dissecting the Risks

the time of discharge. As with follow-up appointments, it is

recommended that physicians have in place a tracking system
to alert them to those patients who have failed to make or

keep appointments following discharge from the hospital.
Often times, patients discharged from the hospital are not even

established patients in the office practice.

This necessitates the establishment of a consistent process to
verify that appointments have been made for all discharges from

the hospital. The discharging physician should communicate
this information to a designated employee, and efforts should be

made to contact the patient to schedule an appointment.

In addition, it is important to make sure that the staff documents

all attempts to provide appropriate scheduling for both new and
follow-up patients. When an unavoidable delay occurs, offering

to place the patient on a waitlist in case of a cancelled time slot
may be appropriate.

Clinical Advice Protocols

All physicians receive calls from patients needing clarification

of medical instructions, treatment, etc. This responsibility
frequently falls to the staff. However, it is often difficult for the

staff to handle telephone questions efficiently and appropriately
without written, standardized protocols to reference before

giving the patient this information. Initially, staff could benefit
from the use of written phone triage protocols which would

assist them in determining how to direct callers to the correct
staff person for his or her inquiry.

After the patient has been directed to the correct staff person
for his or her inquiry, it is crucial to have in place a clinical

advice protocol for all clinical staff allowed to give patient

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