Kathy,
 We also had this dilemma....we changed our procedure so that now when the physician calls to have a consult sent we fax him/her a request form that has a portion stating that he is requesting us to send slides to (the name of the physician we are sending to).  The physician signs this form and faxes it back to us.  We process the request, send the slides on their way and we keep those request forms on file.  We used to accept a phone request but now we require that form to be filled out before we will even begin the process.  Hope this helps...

Have a great day  : )

Vicki
Albany Medical Center

>>> hkcormier <hkcorm@banet.net> 07/10/00 07:13PM >>>
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