They come weeks after the patient is discharged and require pulling information from charts or discharge summaries, which delays the prescription. This information is known to the team at the time of discharge but is not communicated to the specific company. Medication prescriptions, which are hand-written or called in, could be facilitated. Communication between residents, attendings, and students requires paging presently and is cumbersome when trying to schedule a group meeting. Obtaining a consult at present requires special knowledge by each clerk on how to communicate with that service about the consult.
Delays occur at times.
Accurate data on referring or off-site physicians to allow efficient transmission of information back to them and efficient approval of referrals. Accurate data on Pharmacies, Home Health, etc. should be available to efficiently process requests or prescriptions. Email or intraweb bulletin boards for communication with resident and student teams would facilitate care and teaching. Communication of consults via web base might facilitate the process. Maintain on web browser lists of physicians, home health agencies, and pharmacies with an accurate address, phone, fax, and email address.