You must be in or near clinic, even if you don't have a patient scheduled.   The outpatient staff need to know who is available and are relying on you to be there.  Remember our #1 goal here is to teach you how to manage patients (all sorts of neurology patients).  If you are not available to see the patients, its hard for us to teach it!  Additionally, if we have no patients, why are we all here? Continuity clinic afternoons are protected time from ward duties, with rare exception.

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Basic Logistics of Seeing a Patient

• It is helpful to read up on your patients before each clinic and if possible start a note. 

• On your schedule in eCW, the patients status will change from pending, to arrived, to ready to be seen after the MA has recorded the patient's vitals.

• Refer to the chart near the front desk (hung above the prescription printer) for the room to which you are assigned.

• Set up your tools and the computer in the room as you like it. Then, you will have to call the patient into the room when you are ready.

• After seeing a patient, you should go find your preceptor to staff the patient.  This can take some time as your preceptor might be seeing other patients.  It is often good to warn patients that they may have to wait for some time.  

• If your preceptor is unavailable for some reason, it is ok to ask other faculty to staff your patient.

• Make sure you verify with the attending with whom the patient should follow-up. After the visit, walk the patient to the front desk to schedule the follow-up appointment and any tests you ordered.

• There are many idiosyncrasies to using eCW, so please see the page on using it for important information about documenting your visit.  

• Using eCW

  • Always make sure the medications are reconciled and the vitals are put in

  • When putting in level of visit, all new and follow-up patients get a level 5 (the coders can always decrease the level based on what is in your note, but can't increase it for you). 

  • Always put the modifier GC (capitals required) in the billing section, as it indicated that a resident aided in this visit. 

 

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Jellybeans

Importantly, at Tufts, your patients are your responsibility when you are on the wards, particularly when it comes to responding to the messages they leave with the clinic.  These come in the form of "jellybeans" in the upper right of the eCW screen.  It is important to be prompt in responding to these and documenting your response.  

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When you get a new jellybean, the clinic staff will alert you via email.  It is also helpful to download the eCW app, as it too can send you notifications.