The Gen Med Team is by far our busiest referral team. Please be mindful of this. Make your referral to the point and concise, confirm the management plan with them, then document it and order all relevant medications and investigations and initiate treatment as discussed with them.

Always check if interim orders are agreeable and if they state not, please clarify the reason(s) so we can try to optimise the patient to get them ready for the ward.

REFERRALS

For referrals 24/7 you refer to the AMU registrar (Acute Medical Unit) on #46185

All General Medicine referrals goes to them

After hours the AMU reg will also do all the admissions for the Speciality Teams (see below), so they will also need to be contacted for the speciality referrals after you have clarified the plan with the on call relevant specialty unit.

Stroke Calls

The decision for activating a stroke call lies with the senior doctor in the emergency department. If one of the FAST criteria is positive or other features suggestive of stroke, a stroke call will be activated. Triage will call 2222 and the call is put out to the radiology and medical teams, book a medical bed.

ED Team: ensure rapid assessment vital signs, 18 G IV inserted in R cubital fossa, bloods taken, CT STROKE ordered, help to get the VST cart ready for the medical team.

Medical Team: Will do the stroke assessment and run the stroke review process by liaising with the VST on call team.

Private Patients

For patients already known to private physicians, they should be the first port of call if:

• it’s in hours or reasonable time after hours
• the physician is available i.e. not on leave, not a weekend etc

If a bed is available sat STJOG Hospital they will be admitted to SSOU to await a transfer, if no bed is available, they will get at admitted to Bendigo Hospital. The medical registrar does the admission, so remember to make the referral to them.

For patients not known to private physicians but who does have private health insurance and is agreeable for a potential STJOG transfer:

• check for bed availability at STJOG
• check if there is an on-call physicians for STJOG on the roster
• check with that particular physician if they are keen to take on this new patient (usually if they are not too complex, they will be agreeable)

If a bed is available sat STJOG Hospital they will be admitted to SSOU to await a transfer, if no bed is available, they will be admitted to Bendigo Hospital. The medical registrar does the admission, so remember to make the referral to them.

We have a STJOG Private Patient Liaison Nurse (PPLN) on week days 08:30 - 12:30 who can help co-ordinate to check for bed availability, excess needed to be paid etc.

Contact Number: 0439 198 545

They require:

• Patient's Private Health Fund details
• Patients Specific Primary Diagnosis (eg Pneumonia requiring IVAB), name of accepting physician, any relevant information (eg special precautions)

Outside of these hours contact the STJOGH After Hours Manager (bed manager) on

Contact Number : 5434 3422

SPECIALITY MEDICINE

Renal / Oncology / Cardiology / Endocrinology

• in hours phone the relevant reg, they do their own admission
• after hours phone the on-call consultant, document the plan, then phone the AMU reg to arrange the admission
• NOTE: Endocrine referrals only 08:00 to 17:00 M-F, outside of these hours refer to AMU Reg.

Respiratory / Gastroenterology

• generally, the AMU will refer to these units at their own discretion
• occasionally, after you have discussed / referred to the AMU reg they might suggest that the patient sounds appropriate for either unit and it might be worth discussing with them, this is not unreasonable.