Rate to do discharge summaries?

[DrZorro]

Hello!
I have been given the opportunity to do a large number discharge summaries for a local family doc, but have no idea what to charge. Does anyone know a going rate for this service?

Thanks!!

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[deleted87716]

 

[DrZorro]

While my bank account would love that addition, I was looking for a more reasonable response...

 

[deleted87716]

I wasn't kidding.

Frankly, it sounds weird that somebody would farm out their discharge summaries to a third party who had no role in the care of the patients. They are still going to have to sign off on them, and they will be responsible for the content of the discharge summaries. If there's an error, then it's their ass. And there would be no way for them to know if there is an error unless they either have perfect recall (yeah right), or go through the chart themselves to verify everything in the discharge summary. In either case, they could've just done the discharge summary themselves.

How much should you charge? Aim high. After all, you're obviously dealing with an idiot.

 

[SnakeOil]

I didn't even think this was legal...

 

[deleted87716]

I didn't even think this was legal...

It's state and/or facility-dependent. In some cases, physicians may be allowed to delegate things like discharge summaries to non-physician colleagues.

Example: http://www.albme.org/Documents/Opinions/1-0509.pdf

 

[cabinbuilder]

Hello!
I have been given the opportunity to do a large number discharge summaries for a local family doc, but have no idea what to charge. Does anyone know a going rate for this service?

Thanks!!

Sounds like that local doc is lazy and doesn't want to do their own work. Nobody likes doing DC summaries but unless you took care of the patient, pretty hard to get the whole picture just from the chart. I would not do it.

 

[primadonna22274]

Amen. I totally want to farm mine out after a month of inpatient medicine but I just have to buckle down and do them. Who else is gonna know what happened with the patient better than the person who took care of them the bulk of the admission?

 

[michaelrack]

Approximately 12 years ago, a few doctors at a private psychiatric hospital near the U of MS (jackson, MS) paid senior psychiatric residents and fellows to dictate discharge summaries- I did a few of these but don't remember what the rate was. Of course psych discharge x summaries are a little different than other specialties.

 

[michaelrack]

Amen. I totally want to farm mine out after a month of inpatient medicine but I just have to buckle down and do them. Who else is gonna know what happened with the patient better than the person who took care of them the bulk of the admission?

In private practice, often the doctor who does a discharge summary only took care of the patient for the final few hours/day of hospitalization- at least in psych (I cover psych wards on weekends and sometimes discharge patients and dictate the d/c summary) and for those taken care of by IM rotating hospitalists- this may be less true for FM

 

[simpler2]

Hello!
I have been given the opportunity to do a large number discharge summaries for a local family doc, but have no idea what to charge. Does anyone know a going rate for this service?

Thanks!!

There was an attending internist during my student years that did this. I think he paid around $50 per DC summary. He also kept a census of around 100 patients and had consultants caring for most of his admissions...sketchy stuff. Seems like a set up for lawsuit to me. If you are putting your name anywhere on that chart, that means you're being named on the suit as well.