GENERAL MEDICINE AS A REFERRAL SOURCE FOR HOSPITALS
General Medicine has developed and maintains affiliations with most Hospitals, their Hospitalist programs and Primary Care Providers in each local community where we have a practice. With the large number of post-acute and long-term care patients we follow daily in the areas we service, our hospital affiliates recognize that General Medicine has become a key source of referrals for their health care organization.
Because our clinicians only care for patients while they are residents of post-acute and long-term facilities, when these patients require acute or ancillary services, we look to and depend on our affiliates to provide that care. By relying on our affiliates, we are assured that our patients receive excellent continuity of care from providers we know and trust. Also, when we refer to our affiliates, we are usually able to direct admit patients when necessary. Generally speaking, this is much less traumatic for the patient and eliminates unnecessary and non-reimbursed ER services and utilization. In addition, when our patients return home after a rehab stay, we refer them to our affiliate's physicians to provide their community based medical services as needed.
It is important to understand that General Medicine is an independent, specialized group practice. As such, we create relationships and collaborate with many different systems and providers to best offer choice and access for our patients. In saying this though, we definitely recognize the importance to each of our affiliates of maintaining their hospital–patient, and physician–patient relationships. We continuously strive to keep those relationships intact and we do not compete with affiliates for their patients.
