Bert, why do you continue to send your patients to a specialist who sounds like a jerk, berates you, doesn't work locally, and sounds like he doesn't even want your patients?
I guess as an ophthalmologist I count as a specialist, so I'll answer your questions. First of all, what are you calling these specialists for? Are you just calling them to ask for advice? As in, "what antibiotic should I give to my patient who I think has conjunctivitis (the answer: nothing, most conjunctivitis is viral. If you think it?s bacterial, they need to see an ophthalmologist. Also, for the love of God, please don?t ever prescribe Tobramycin or Gentamicin!!! That stuff is toxic to the eye and should only be used by an ophthalmologist under certain special circumstances!!!)?? Or "what steps should I take to work-up a patient that I think might have pyelonephritis/a UTI (I thought maybe that's the question you were asking when you used your example about obtaining a micro cath and a CBC)?? Or "what medicine should I prescribe for this rash my patient has?" If you were repeatedly calling me with questions like this, I would be inclined not to answer you back in a timely fashion. I would have to say, if you have to call a specialist to ask how to treat a patient, you shouldn?t be treating that patient, and you should just send them to the specialist. Or like jimmie says, look it up on the internet. If you tend to call me with questions like, ?for this patient that I think has temporal arteritis, should I send him to your office or send him to the ER??, I would be more inclined to return your calls more promptly. Or if you tend to call to tell me why you?re sending a complicated patient to me, I would be more likely to continue to return your calls promptly. Unless I?m in the OR; then you?ll have to wait. That?s one of the reasons why specialists take longer to return calls than PCPs. A lot of the time, they aren?t in the office because they?re doing surgery or procedures. Actually, as someone who sees way too many patients who were initially diagnosed with ?conjunctivitis? by their PCPs, when in reality they really had uveitis or scleritis or a corneal abrasion, etc. etc., I would prefer it if more PCPs would call me instead of improperly treating their patients. Or just send your patient over to see me. I, unlike your friendly pulmonologist, will not be mad if you send me too many patients. And when PCPs refer a patient to me, I prefer to send a quick dictated letter, mostly because if I sent you guys my ophthalmology note, you probably wouldn?t understand half of it given that it mostly consists of ophthalmologic nonsense. By the way, I did call a cardiologist once (because he asked me to call him about his patient), and I was on hold for fifteen minutes before I got pissed off and hung up. I?ll never call him about his patients again.
Does that help answer your questions, Bert?
