We have a form that the drs. office faxes to us - with physician signature,
that we use for this sort of thing.
Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	hkcormier [SMTP:hkcorm@banet.net]
	Sent:	Monday, July 10, 2000 7:14 PM
	To:	histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
	Subject:	consult charges, documentation

	Hello All,
	I have an interesting question for you all, our corporate compliance
	program is currently looking at path consult charges...how does
everyone
	(anyone) document physician requests for consults. By this I mean
the
	patient's doctor calls the office and requests that the case be sent
out
	to another pathologist, not the "house" pathologist sending our for
a
	second opinion. Our issue is that we are a fairly small hospital
with
	only 2 pathologist, our pathologists will routinely send out cases
for a
	second opinion, on say bone marrows to the regions top bone marrow
guy.
	The local visiting oncologist and ocasionally a local surgeon -
primary
	care physician will request that a case be sent out, some where
else.
	The issue is, is that it is usually a phone call from the doctor or
	doctor's staff and we never receive any written order or request.
This
	our course would slow us all down and wreck havoc with our customer
	service policy. Our corporate people feel that without documentation
	from somewhere, this may be construed as fraud.  Any ideas? Any one
ever
	deal with this before? Any suggestions? Thanks!  Kathy