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CONVENIENT CARE
to. It allows physicians to focus on the patient instead
of making phone calls.”
Connecting local physicians with other facilities also
helps to build relationships between regional hospitals.
“This program gives us the opportunity to give real-
time feedback to the sending facilities,” said Evans. “We
let them know that their patient made it to our facility
safely and provide themwith an update on the patient’s
condition. We believe it keeps the sending facility con-
nected with the patient they sent. It also helps build
trust between organizations and ensures quality for
our patients.”
Making Connections
K O O T E N A I ’ S N E W P A T I E N T T R A N S F E R C E N T E R I S
C O N N E C T I N G L O C A L A N D R E G I O N A L P H Y S I C I A N S
F O R M O R E C O M P R E H E N S I V E C A R E
Maryanne Clancy, lead patient transfer facilitator
By Andrea Kalas-Nagel
KOOTENAI HEALTH
r e c e n t l y c r e a t e d a
patient transfer center to
provide service to local
and regional hospitals,
phys i c ians and thei r
s t a f f membe r s . Th i s
center provides a single
telephone number that can
be called 24 hours a day
for assistance with patient
transfers.
“The intent of thi s
program was to create a
smooth, one-call process
for other facilities to ac-
cess care here,” said Roger
Evans, manager, nursing
operations support. “Prior
to this system, physicians
sometimes had to call
several times before they
could reach the specialist they were looking for.”
Now physicians reach a facilitator in the transfer cen-
ter on their first call. From there the facilitator helps to
connect callers to on-call physician specialists for one-on-
one telephone consultations. If it is determined that the
patient does need to be transferred, the same facilitator
can help make arrangements.
“Kootenai works with many regional facilities that do
not have the same specialty services we are fortunate
to have,” said Maryanne Clancy, lead patient transfer
facilitator. “Now we have a standard process that con-
nects these facilities with exactly who they need to talk
KOO T E NA I
H E A L T H
. OR G
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The patient transfer center provides a single telephone number
that can be called 24 hours a day for assistance.