To provide comprehensive care to their patients and families, it is important to private pediatricians to be aware when they have a new patient in the world who is requiring intensive care. To cultivate better relationships with the local physician community, it is important for the Vanderbilt NICU staff to notify the private pediatrician when a baby is admitted to the NICU.

Shirley Carpenter and Carol Stewart obtain demographic information from mothers whose babies are admitted including the name of the follow-up pediatrician, and the attending fills out an admission form which generates a letter to be mailed to the pediatrician. However, this process takes several days which is unacceptable to local physicians.

When taking an admission history from a mother, the housestaff should inquire regarding the baby’s pediatrician. If the family is from Nashville and has a local pediatrician, that physician should be notified as soon as possible. The attending neonatologist should obtain the name of every admission’s follow-up pediatrician during AM rounds and ensure that local pediatricians have been contacted.

Ongoing communication with the pediatrician regarding the patient’s NICU course is provided by the Tuesday form letters which are filled out by housestaff, signed by the attending, and mailed to the private pediatricians by Shirley and Carol.

Discussed at the Neonatology Faculty Meeting 8/08/00.