Clinical Telephone Consultations From the Urgent Care Center: An Educational Model Urgent message: Communication between UC providers and consultant physicians can facilitate timely, efficacious patient management OR it can damage trust between the treating physician and the consultant. Kenneth V. Iserson, MD, MBA, FACEP, FAAEM, Professor of Emergency Medicine, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ rgent care providers, as much as or more than any other specialist, must call consultants to admit, refer, appropriately treat, or ob- tain follow-up for their patients. At many urgent care centers, physicians are also often on the receiving end of calls from providers. Such physician-to-physician communication, usually by phone, can enhance patient care but often takes an inordi- nate amount of time and, if done poorly, can undermine collegial relationships. 1-3 Ad- vances in communication tech- nologies have allowed some medical centers to show some improvement in time management for non-urgent consultations. 4,5 Despite increased use of e-mail, instant messaging, fax, web-based video conferencing, and radio systems for communication in daily life, the telephone remains the primary medium. Effective telephone consultations with other physicians reflect on the urgent care U w w w. j u c m . c o m providers, their group, and their center’s professionalism. More importantly, they can facilitate timely and efficacious patient management. Poor physician- to-physician telephone commu- nications, on the other hand, may lead to inappropriate responses from consultants, as well as the urgent care provider garnering the consultant’s dis- trust, a poor professional reputa- tion, and difficulty obtaining such consultations in the future. At a time when many spe- cialty consultants and other pri- mary care providers are often unwilling to see urgent care patients, unprofessional tele- phone communication may damage the image physi- cians want to project. On the other hand, good interac- tions often lead to professional collegiality, the ability to shorten such interactions based on mutual confidence and respect, and a more efficient working environ- ment—all of which benefit the patient. With “interpersonal communications” being a core competency of graduate medical education, a simple © Images.com/Corbis Introduction JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | Fe b r u a r y 2 0 0 7 17