For Physicians

Physician Referrals

Thank you for referring your patients to BIDMC’s Emergency Department.

We are proud to provide the very best clinical care to those important to you. Our attending emergency physicians are among the most experienced in the country and are supported by a staff of highly trained nurses, technicians and when needed, exceptional specialists.

Our team is constantly designing, testing and implementing systems that allow our physicians to render care better and more efficiently. Our ED Dashboard allows better two-way communication between the ED and our patients’ primary care physicians. Referring clinicians can place patient information on the Dashboard directly and reaching an attending ED physician is as easy as a direct phone call. We were one of the first in the area to integrate iPad technology in the ED for registration and record sharing. In addition, we are studying newer and more effective, patient-friendly ways of delivering care such as Observation Medicine and clinical pathways for such disorders as DKA and cellulitis.

We are committed to keeping you informed of the status of your patients. When patients are discharged from our ED or Observation Unit, a brief summary of their care is emailed directly to the primary care physician.

The process of referring a patient depends on whether or not you are a part of the BID Network.

If you are a member of the BID Network

The most efficient way to referring patients is by placing an “expect” status in our online tool. You can do this directly on the web and the information automatically appears on the screen, as the ED staff is caring for the patient. No more lost pieces of paper, but more importantly, reviewing the call-in notification is a routine part of our workflow so you can be sure that the ED staff is actually seeing it. You can specify clinical information, a call back number (if desired), your choice of specialist, etc.

The mechanism for this is to go to the BIDMC Portal:

Log into the BIDMC portal at portal.bidmc.org with your login and password
At the top choose Applications --> More
In the left column, choose "Emergency Department Call In Boston"
You can search for an existing patient, or click Proceed if the patient is new to BIDMC
Complete the form

The form looks like this:

If you are not in the BID Network or need to refer by phone

There are three steps to the patient process.

Upon arrival, patients are triaged, registered and brought into the patient care area. The amount of time this step takes depends on the patient’s acuity, availability of a bed and the workflow of both the triage nurse and the registration clerk.
Next is the patient evaluation. A team of emergency nurses, doctors in training and board certified emergency physicians will decide upon and then implement a work up with the goal of stabilizing acutely ill and injured patients and determining the best disposition (often, but not always making a specific diagnosis). This may involve only a clinical evaluation or various lab and imaging tests.
The final component is getting the patient to their ultimate destination (home, an inpatient bed or an observation unit) as rapidly as possible once the disposition is made. This timing of this latter step is affected not only by internal ED flow, but also by bed availability.