SECTION TK
FEATURE
It was never a discussion of 'why do we need to do this?'
but rather an exploration of how best to do this
final policy. A small amendment was made to
clarify that patients can also book an appoint-
ment to receive the results rather than call in.
Follow-up
The final policy states that ordering physicians
must ensure that appropriate follow-up on
test results received occurs. This means com-
municating the test result to the patient in an
appropriate manner and taking appropriate
clinical action in response to the test result.
In certain health-care environments, the
ordering physician may not be the same physi-
cian who receives the test result (e.g., in an
emergency department or a walk-in clinic).
In these situations, ordering physicians must
either delegate, assign or otherwise ensure that
there is another person that is responsible for
coordinating the follow-up or that there is a
system in place to do so.
TRANSITIONS IN CARE
While the core expectations of the draft have
been retained, a number of updates were made
in response to practical challenges raised in the
feedback.
Hospital Discharges
Given strong support for the requirement that
discharge summaries be completed in a timely
manner, and calls to adopt a 48-hour (or
shorter) timeline, the policy was amended to
include a 48-hour completion requirement.
Acknowledging Referrals
The final policy retains a requirement that
consultant physicians acknowledge a referral
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DIALOGUE ISSUE 3, 2019
within 14 days. The expectation, in general,
received broad support from stakeholders. A
minor revision was made to manage vaca-
tions, acknowledging that the ‘clock starts’
when physicians return from a temporary
absence.
WALK-IN CLINICS
The core expectation of this policy – that phy-
sicians practising in a walk-in clinic must meet
the standard of practice of the profession – is
unchanged. This expectation applies regardless
of whether care is being provided in a sustained
or episodic manner. For example, physicians
practising in a walk-in clinic must conduct
any assessments, tests, or investigations that
are required in order for them to appropriately
provide treatment and must provide or arrange
for appropriate follow-up care.
The draft policy included a requirement
that physicians practising in a walk-in clinic
send a record of each encounter to the
patient’s primary care provider (and others,
as appropriate). Feedback received identi-
fied practical limitations and consequences
to operationalizing this requirement (e.g.,
administrative burden, incomplete informa-
tion, increased ‘noise’, privacy concerns). In
response, the policy no longer requires that
information sharing be done as a matter of
course, but rather only where the patient has
requested that this be done or where it is a
matter of patient safety. The policy acknowl-
edges that the record may need to be shared
through the patient, rather than directly to
the provider.
MD