5 Ways to Improve Relationships Between GP and ER Clinics
It’s 4:30 pm on Friday, and you are a mere 30 minutes from closing for the weekend. Your appointments are winding down when the phone rings. Mrs. Smith has just come home and found that her dog Snickers has vomited multiple times. Your client service representative comes to you seeking advice. She has already advised Mrs. Smith that she should seek emergency care, but the two closest ER clinics to your practice are not accepting any non-critical patients for the remainder of the night. The next nearest hospital is an hour away and projects a 6-8 hour wait for stable patients, which Mrs. Smith is not happy about. What do you do?
This situation has become an all-toocommon reality in practices across Pennsylvania—and the country—over the past year. General practices are booking weeks to months out. Emergency clinics are overwhelmed with their normal emergency caseload and additional medical cases that can’t find a GP appointment. It seems no one has the time or resources to keep up with the demand.
for the management teams who have had to make these difficult decisions. No one wants to turn away patients or make them wait in their car for most of the night, but it is our current reality at all levels of practice.
By Kate Boatright, VMD
I have worked in both emergency and general practice during the pandemic. I have seen both sides of the issue, and I understand the frustration on both sides. As a general practitioner, it used to be a comfort to know that emergency clinics were available to care for my patients on my off-hours. I also had a place to send my critical pets or those who needed more care than I could provide. But now those options are limited. Emergency clinics have been faced with the difficult decision to limit patient intake, reduce their hours, or discontinue emergency services altogether in an effort to protect their staff from burnout and ensure they maintain the resources necessary to provide adequate care to their inpatients. I have the utmost respect
How did we end up here? It’s a complicated answer with many moving pieces that we’ve been debating for a while now. We can continue to have these debates, or we can start to find solutions. On a recent episode of the Cone of Shame podcast, David Liss, MBA, CVPM, RVT, VTS, summarized the state of our profession perfectly: “It’s no one’s fault, but it’s everyone’s problem.”1 We aren’t going to solve case backlogs, staffing shortages, and decreased efficiency overnight.2 But there are things we can do in our local communities to best serve our clients and patients while protecting the physical and mental health of our valuable staff members. 1. Client Education There are increasing news reports and social media posts about the state of our profession that are helping to spread continued on next page > Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association | 17
