It would be incredible if insurance would reimburse for the extended time necessary to do ideal psychiatric work including time gathering collateral from family. Unfortunately procedures carry the day for physician payment. Insurance is paying for the services provided, and I think a theoretical liability should exist. Reimburse poorly don’t be surprised doctors have to rush through patients to earn a living.
Just want to make a note that contacting the outpatient psychiatrist while a patient is admitted to a psychiatric unit/facility is not the standard of care. Certainly it could be beneficial in some cases but not always--collateral information is often obtained through family, and at our facility we are provided the patient's past medical/psych history through the EMR, prescription monitoring programs, pharmacy dispense reports and other sources. This renders contacting the outpatient psychiatrist superfluous in most cases - ultimately as an inpatient psychiatrist we are (presumably) well-versed in managing high-risk cases and function in a multidisciplinary team to reduce risk and collaborate care. We provide updates to outpatient psychiatrists who are interested or by patient request (after an ROI is signed) but again, this is not a necessary step in terms of inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Thanks for the insight! I have no doubt that's the standard of care for actual medical practice. Expert witnesses love to make up ridiculous claims about the standard of care that even they themselves don't do. They mistake things that could have been done (or were good ideas in hindsight) with things that any good, reasonable doctor would have done.
It would be incredible if insurance would reimburse for the extended time necessary to do ideal psychiatric work including time gathering collateral from family. Unfortunately procedures carry the day for physician payment. Insurance is paying for the services provided, and I think a theoretical liability should exist. Reimburse poorly don’t be surprised doctors have to rush through patients to earn a living.
Just want to make a note that contacting the outpatient psychiatrist while a patient is admitted to a psychiatric unit/facility is not the standard of care. Certainly it could be beneficial in some cases but not always--collateral information is often obtained through family, and at our facility we are provided the patient's past medical/psych history through the EMR, prescription monitoring programs, pharmacy dispense reports and other sources. This renders contacting the outpatient psychiatrist superfluous in most cases - ultimately as an inpatient psychiatrist we are (presumably) well-versed in managing high-risk cases and function in a multidisciplinary team to reduce risk and collaborate care. We provide updates to outpatient psychiatrists who are interested or by patient request (after an ROI is signed) but again, this is not a necessary step in terms of inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Thanks for the insight! I have no doubt that's the standard of care for actual medical practice. Expert witnesses love to make up ridiculous claims about the standard of care that even they themselves don't do. They mistake things that could have been done (or were good ideas in hindsight) with things that any good, reasonable doctor would have done.