The Department of Medicine predominantly serves individuals with complex, chronic diseases. Although sometimes this care can happen entirely within a single clinical specialty, it often requires clinicians from different disciplines, sometimes quickly.
The Department is now implementing an organized approach to rapid specialty care. Now, Department faculty, trainees, and APPs can contact a designated clinician in each subspecialty (except for hematology and oncology) Monday through Friday, from 8 am – 5 pm, for help managing outpatient logistical or clinical issues that require urgent or semi-urgent attention. The specialist may assist them through curbside phone calls, expedited eConsults, or same-day patient consultation.
For instance, a pulmonologist seeing a clinic patient with melena can call a gastroenterologist for guidance. Or, a gastroenterologist seeing a patient with chest pain can quickly access cardiology support.
Additionally, patients referred from one Eastowne clinic to another for non-urgent needs may be seen on the same day as the referral if a consulting provider is available.
“The goal is to build community, enhance patient and provider experiences, improve care access and appointment utilization, and reduce unnecessary ED visits and hospitalizations,” said Spencer Dorn, MD, professor of medicine and vice chair for care innovation in the Department of Medicine.
This program extends the general theme towards increased multispecialty care and collaboration across the Department, such as the expanded Same Day Clinic and several new multispecialty clinics.
Accessing These Services
To access these services, clinicians should follow the “Referring Physician-specific workflow” available at www.DOMclinical.com. All requests start with a call to the specialty’s Eastowne clinic charge nurse. Questions and all feedback should be sent to sdorn@med.unc.edu.