Meet Liz, 24. She has a hard time focusing at work.
Liz visited her family doctor for this reason. While assessing Liz, they found she had a fast heartbeat and an abnormal ECG, causing hesitancy about prescribing ADHD medication to improve her attention. With Liz's best interest in mind, she was referred to an internist for an in-person appointment.
3 months passed; Liz heard nothing. Still having trouble focusing, she called her family doctor's office for an update. She was told that the referral was sent and to keep waiting.
Another 3 months passed; Liz’s troubles continued. Her performance at work was suffering and her trouble focusing was interpreted by her manager as lack of interest in her role. Liz had several write-ups due to lack of productivity and missed deadlines.
Liz was frustrated and concerned; but kept waiting.
3 more months; Liz visited an internist. The internist interpreted the ECG and created a treatment plan that allowed Liz to best manage her condition and improve her performance at work.
Liz was still frustrated; it took 9 months of waiting to get the treatment she needed. She asked herself ‘isn't there a better way?’
Long story, short solution - a Virtual Hallway consult.
Virtual Hallway phone consults are available within 1-2 days, enabling specialist input earlier on in the course of a patient’s illness. The platform facilitates knowledge sharing between specialists and primary care providers, in turn, motivating more timely and effective care.
A Virtual Hallway consult in the case of Liz?
9 months of waiting, worsening and wondering – avoided.
Professional knowledge and confidence – shared.
Specialist waitlist – one patient shorter.
Practitioners on Virtual Hallway spend a lot of time thinking how best to help their patients. We often get queries about what types of problems make a good consult request. Having effective consult requests can streamline the entire consultation process, allowing more quality time spent problem solving through the patient’s problem.
So what are some examples of effective consult requests? We’ve gathered a few tips examples and tips from Virtual Hallway General Internists:
Often labs come back abnormal, but the direction to go next is unclear. This is a common and effective use of phone consultation. Consulting on this can lead to a faster diagnosis, avoid unnecessary tests and in some cases, reassure patients.
CHF is a complex problem, and made even more complex as individuals with CHF typically have multiple other medical problems that might be exacerbated by some medications. This type of problem is a excellent example of where consultation can help optimize a patients treatment.
Whether it be for atrial fibrillation or venous thromboembolism, stopping, starting and titrating anticoagulants can be tricky. This is where talking through matters with an Internist can help make this process as efficient as possible.
Patient’s symptoms don’t always lead to an obvious diagnosis. Often, it takes a lot of history taking, physical exam and investigation to figure out what might be going on. Consulting with a General Internist during this process can help narrow the diagnostic possibilities down, and also help in selecting the investigations with the highest yield for a patient’s presenting problems.
Making a diagnosis is part one. Choosing the best treatment is step two. Working through the treatment options for a patient’s diagnosis is an excellent exercise to do with a General Internist.
While these are some examples of situations where consultation is appropriate, there are no hard and fast rules about consulting. A consult should be an option whenever there is uncertainty about a patient’s condition. Two heads are better than one.
