City of Hope's referring physician communication process improvement initiative.

Abstract

63 Background: City of Hope’s (COH) Performance Excellence Program (PEP), a physician incentive program aimed at improving quality and process outcomes, identified the need to establish a process for strengthening COH’s relationship with referring physicians. Methods: Working in collaboration with New Patient Services, Marketing, and physicians across multiple disciplines, we implemented a manual process of copying information in all H and Ps/Admit Notes, discharge summaries, consultation notes, and operative reports to referring MDs if the COH MD had not done so. The PEP team is also in the process of establishing a specific COH referral MD line that would allow for priority queuing and a real-time warm transfer to the MD/ MD’s office. Marketing of the number will be conducted through a standard thank-you cover letter sent by every COH MD upon initial consultation of patient, as well as through a newly revamped physician website. The implementation of a Health Information Exchange is also in progress. Results: Overall satisfaction on COHs ability to communicate increased from 23% to 30%. Number of 10 or more updates received from COH increased from 0% to 17%. Those who referred 20% of their patient volume increased from 15% to 20% while those who only referred 1-5% decreased from 69% to 30%. Conclusions: Through the multiple strategies and joint efforts across disciplines, COH has strengthened its relationship with referring MDs and increased its referral volume. [Table: see text]