The ABC's of Access to The Children's Hospital's Specialists

Dr. Mok's Notes March 2007

We know that the limited supply and distribution of pediatric sub-specialists in the Rocky Mountain West often makes managing and coordinating care for children difficult in the pediatric or family medicine office, especially with the increase in complex, chronic disease in some patients.  The goal of The Children's Hospital Healthcare Network is to provide Available, Beneficial, and Convenient access to all 30 types of special pediatric expertise represented on The Children's Hospital faculty. Learning the ABC's takes practice.

We are committed to making pediatric specialty care part of the Medical Home model that is supported by pediatric and family medicine professional societies.  This model has the best chance of providing children with a personal health professional close to home who takes care of primary preventive and illness issues and serves to facilitate specialty consultation for those children who need it.  In summary, we would like to make your professional life more hassle-free and your care of children more rewarding.

In order to reach this goal we are always trying to get better at:

1. Answering your phone calls quickly to help with clinical concerns for patients in the office that day.
2. Providing ongoing CME opportunities at conferences or through electronic learning such as streaming video or DVD programs or online Children's Link Clinical Corner topics.
3. Meeting expectations of clinicians and families for specialty appointments at the main hospital campus or satellite facilities.
4. Communicating with your office in a timely fashion on ED visits, hospital stays and outpatient consults.

As more medical offices become familiar with the use of online resources, it appears we have an opportunity to make referrals to The Children's Hospital easier.  A pilot project now underway has the following goals:

1. Develop referral guidelines for patients that allow you to review online the suggested workup for patients with particular problems, saving time and preventing duplication of testing for patients.
2. Provide online referral forms to allow direct communication with The Children's Hospital appointment center, enhancing transfer of important clinical information and making sure your specific questions about the patient get answered.
3. Post online, the appointment availability of specific specialists in their main campus clinic or healthcare network locations.
4. Inform patients and families of the specialist physician or mid-level clinician they will be seeing for their visit.

We hope this electronic enhancement of access to specialists will make better use of everyone's time and energy, while at the same time we will pay attention to the personal touches that are so important in making sick kids better.  For example, The new Children's Hospital at Fitzsimons will take advantage of pleasant surroundings, better patient flow and ease of check-in to reduce waiting times and improve satisfaction with ambulatory visits. 

Your continued feedback on how we are doing is essential to making things better. If you have already had a chance to experience the referral pilot project and would like to comment, please contact me by phone at (720) 777-6130 or email at mokrohisky.stefan@tchden.org.