second opinion / transfer

7 hours ago, Justin Martyr said:

I have a family friend in one Lubbock hospital (sicu) and would like to get a second opinion from the other Lubbock hospital (and separate system) [emphasis added]. 

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How would I go about getting a doctor from the other hospital to evaluate the patient for a second opinion and and inform me on the viability of the option to transport him to the other hospital [emphasis added]?

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For a family friend?  Unless you are the patient's MPOA, you don't.  In my opinion, your best option is to discuss this with the patient's family, and support them as the work through this.

Best wishes.

JM - I STRONGLY recommend that you change your screen name to something anonymous. EVERYBODY & ANYBODY reads this site.

And welcome to AllNurses.

PP's response is quite on-spot. And remember that HIPAA will influence other HC staff from divulging med info to you, just a family friend. Altho your intentions are prob well meaning, you're just not in the picture.

Thanks. That's not my real name, but I appreciate it. 

If you have power of attorney or you're looking for information for your friend there's a few things to consider. First, most insurances won't cover the costs to transport a patient to another hospital if it's not medically necessary. This would be an out-of-pocket expense and payment will normally be required before a truck is dispatched. 

From there, every system is different. Many hospitals have referral lines and some have transfer centers that will take care of everything. The best thing to do would be to talk with case management at your current hospital and go on the website for the hospital you're looking to send the patient to and find the referral or transfer center numbers.

That all being said, strokes can be devastating for the patient, family, and friends and there really are a limited number of things that can be done and they have very strict criteria and time frames. It's difficult, but part of critical care is seeing and accepting the limitations of what we can do. 

The protocol for transferring a patient usually begins with the Primary physician contacting a transferring facility, discussing the case with an attending there, and then waiting to see if the accepting facility will take the patient. If you are transferring from a hospital that already has all of the needed specialties for the care of that patient, often the family will be on the hook for the cost of transport as the transfer is NOT out of medical necessity. It is questionable if another hospital will take a patient per family request for second opinion. At least from prior experience. But if family requests transfer (family as in who is designated to make decisions for the patient only), the attending does have to at least attempt it. But “just wanting to go somewhere else” often does not fly with the accepting facility. 

wow just realized this was from months ago LOL