Women's Dermatologic Society

  Tips for Communicating with Your Dermatopathologist By Randie Kim, MD This month, we will be discussing the requisition form as the primary form of communication between clinicians and dermatopathologists. The requisition form accompanies a biopsy specimen and ideally contains a specific clinical question for histopathologic interpretation, which is then sent back to the clinician to help guide management. Believe it or not, on average, 20 different handoffs can occur throughout the skin biopsy process (1). What information is typically included on a requisition form? In a survey of 145 surveyed dermatologists (2), three elements were rated as “important” for the requisition form and included biopsy site location, size, and the clinical impression. In contrast, dermatopathologists identified 10 clinical elements that they felt were critical for the requisition form. These included age of the patient, any prior diagnoses, location, duration, morphology, clinical impression, ...

  From Dr. Molly Stout Store protocols (EMA) and dot phrases (Epic) for your frequently used visits Take the time to train your medical assistants and nurses to be comfortable with adding items to the EMR - it’s a team effort! The “diagnosis comment” plan on EMA is one of my favorite functions for adding history and/or my thought process without it ending up on the patient’s after-visit handout  Make a printed document of favorite sunscreens or skincare products so you can provide these to the patients if their handout isn’t ready yet    From Dr. Cather McKay    Investing time up front to train staff on my charting preferences helps me spend less time on documentation outside of clinic.  When I see common mistakes being made that take me time to correct or when there are CMS coding updates, I send out a message or have a short meeting to review. I also have  a preference sheet for staff to reference if needed.  When new ...