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Post Palliative Care Physician
Author: marybkelly7
Date: Oct 15, 2007 10:42 am
What qualifications does a physician need to have in order to do palliative care consults? We have a PC physician that is board certified in PC, but we need a physician that can cover in her absence.
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Re:Palliative Care Physician (by TomSmith on 10/15/2007)
Technically, there are no specific qualifications needed, except as specified by your hospital or health system. Some require board certification in a related specialty such as internal medicine, family practice, etc. There are not enough board certified PC specialists to meet all the need, so few health systems will restrict to just boarded docs.

Practically speaking, I know internists, family physicians, nephrologists, pulmonologists/intensivists, radiation oncologists and even one surgeon who do palliative care consults. Across the board they are excellent doctors and listeners, with a practical bent to solving problems. All of these skills fit within general medical training; the hardest situations require extra training and experience, but not most. We solve the issue by having Patrick Coyne RN MSN be on call 24-7-365 to take the hardest pain management calls. (Not really.)

Here, we do not insist on only-PC boarded docs, because that would leave us with suboptimal coverage, too. At one of the rural hospitals I attend, if only the cardiologist could give tpa, most would not get it...so there must be some flexibility.

So, check your hospital regs, but I doubt that ONLY boarded cardiologists can cover for cardiologists, and the same way for PC.
+ Re:Palliative Care Physician (by MarkCarl01 on 11/09/2007)
We are just beginning to set up our program and are in need of a champion physician. We will be producing a flyer to advertise for the position. Does anyone have any suggestions? How did you find your physicians? What were their best qualifications? Thanks.
Re:Palliative Care Physician (by MarkCarl01 on 12/18/2007)
Thank you for your replies, they were very helpful. I want to make some decisions now and apply them after the first of the year. I have some meetings set up to help make these decisions. It will be an interesting but very important road.

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