Hospital Consult Plan Relieves On-Call Burden for Rheumatologist

Kim Stewart, MD
Summa Physicians Incorporated Rheumatology
Akron, Ohio

Author Colin C. Edgerton, MD, replies: Thank you, Dr. Stewart, for sharing your experience. We commend your efforts, and we find the solution that you negotiated with your hospital employer a wonderful example of physician leadership—doing what is best for the patient while maintaining autonomy of practice.

We share your concern that hospital employers be able to assist physicians by proactively recognizing on-call burdens and offering solutions. Many physicians may feel that it is their implicit duty to accept the status quo and may not realize that better systems may be negotiated.

Patients shouldn’t need to exercise patience when it comes to getting needed rheumatologic care. E-consults are an evolving telehealth modality with the potential to improve access to rheumatologic care in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

The professional relationship between partners in a joint medical practice is sometimes compared with a marriage. The partners must work under the same roof, share the same goals, and strive to make the practice as successful as it can be. Here are some tips for adding a new partner to your practice.

Two of the great traditions of medicine are the curbside and party consults. In the former, participating physicians informally discuss an especially difficult diagnostic problem. During the latter, a patient will approach the doctor to ask about some possible medical problem and what they should do about it. The advent of the Internet has brought…

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