Physician liaison

sbeatty

We have had numerous methods of assistance in the past 10 years. We started with 3 champions (GS, IM and FP) who had no education about CDI and would not approach peers. They saw their roles as educating us on how not to bother doctors with queries!!That lasted a year. We then had the CMO for our liaison, and that has continued to this day. Our issues are that sometimes there are larger political issues that prevent him from approaching physicians that fail to document or to answer queries for us. We also have an IM physician who is Medical Director of Quality, however she has just recently begun helping out. Our dilemma at this point is that we aren't at all clcear on which of these two is to receive which referrals. Quality to MDQ and behavior to CMO? We have no guidleines, and there are no designated/budgeted hours. We have asked for one of our hospitalists to assume this role, and we have one who wants to do it, but administration doesn't want to pay the going rate for designated hours. So after 10 years we aren't any closer to having physician leadership than we were on day one. It is very frustrating.

sharon.cole

We have been trying to get a physician liaison for several years as well. This year my VP is going to the physician liaison preconf prior to the ACDIS conf. We have provided our medical director with a job description and estimated number of hours we would like the physician advisor to be available. A lot of it has to do with budgetary issues. I'm hoping that the preconf will be able to help my VP convince the medical director how important this role can be

Sharon Cole, RN, CCDS
Providence Health Center
Case Management Dept
254.751.4256
srcole@phn-waco.org