Hello Jessica,
I manage Clinical Operations for the midwifery practice at the University of Utah. For patients new to the system, our call center advocates give a general overview of the different types of obstetric providers. Though often patients choose to be seen by the next available provider. This is actually a nice way to share the wealth across all of the specialties (Family, Midwifery, OB General) which increases access to the system overall. Depending on the volume, I can imagine it could be difficult to maintain this as growth occurs. Another consideration is how difficult it can be to reach patients via outbound calls. In general, we try to resolve the request at the time of the call as much as possible because of this.
There are definitely times when patients end up scheduled with a midwife when they really needed a Perinatologist, but that is rare. In that instance the midwife orders New OB labwork, maybe a viability ultrasound, does some general screening and then refers the patient on to the higher level of care. The first 3 obstetric visits are billed as Evaluation/Management visits so the midwife can get paid outside of the global billing.
Have you found a way to monetize the phone call? I am also wondering if the call "establishes" the patient with the provider/group? I can imagine the patient may have medical concerns or questions that come up during the call the with RN. What if something happens to the pregnancy and the only interaction the patient has had with our system was a call with an RN where maybe medical advice was given.
I'm very happy to talk with you more about this if you'd like.
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Melanie Wolcott, MBA, RNC
Operations Manager
BirthCare HealthCare
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
College of Nursing
10 South 2000 East, Rm 3315
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-5880
801.585.0293 office │ 801.585.9345 fax
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-08-2022 16:10
From: Jessica Jones
Subject: Newly Pregnant OB Patients
Hello,
Wondering if anyone has a work flow that supports the newly pregnant patient, specifically one around a telephone intake screening process driven by an RN? We are trying to implement this process, one where the patient recently has a + home pregnancy test then calls to be scheduled with a provider. The patient is scheduled for a phone call with this RN asking a series of questions to assist the patient with what type of provider to be scheduled with (MD vs. CNM). I am curious if anyone out there has something similar in place and how well or what barriers you have run into with that?
Thank you-Jessica
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Jessica Jones
Director of Nursing Specialty Care CDS
Presbyterian Medical Group
Albuquerque NM
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