This shows one of the real benefits of community medicine, where you know who is who and consulting you is in the context of an ongoing professional relationship, not just one service to another service.
I feel like this cuts both ways, and I don't think clearly in favor of either side.
On one hand, I see your point. I would hope that a good professional relationship would make people be more careful about consulting and more willing to try and learn the "rules." I'm sure in some cases that this is exactly how it works out when you have people on both services who are able to communicate well and are motivated to do well by their colleagues.
On the other hand, the interpersonal stuff can bleed into the decision-making. You might feel like a rejection would be embarrassing to a colleague that you particularly like, fort example. I can also imagine it getting especially hard where there is someone who is particularly pig-headed in a small community setting where they're the person you're just going to deal with all the time. Mind you, I'm not saying that sort of person is *unique* to community hospitals, but it sure makes it harder.
In some ways it is easier to enforce these rules - probably because it is less personal - if it is from one service to another and not thought of as a professional relationship between individuals.
Does your program not have a popup menu of questions to ask the primary team before they can consults? Can greatly cut down on the terrible ones.
That's worth a shot, actually. Thanks for the idea.
This shows one of the real benefits of community medicine, where you know who is who and consulting you is in the context of an ongoing professional relationship, not just one service to another service.
I feel like this cuts both ways, and I don't think clearly in favor of either side.
On one hand, I see your point. I would hope that a good professional relationship would make people be more careful about consulting and more willing to try and learn the "rules." I'm sure in some cases that this is exactly how it works out when you have people on both services who are able to communicate well and are motivated to do well by their colleagues.
On the other hand, the interpersonal stuff can bleed into the decision-making. You might feel like a rejection would be embarrassing to a colleague that you particularly like, fort example. I can also imagine it getting especially hard where there is someone who is particularly pig-headed in a small community setting where they're the person you're just going to deal with all the time. Mind you, I'm not saying that sort of person is *unique* to community hospitals, but it sure makes it harder.
In some ways it is easier to enforce these rules - probably because it is less personal - if it is from one service to another and not thought of as a professional relationship between individuals.