One-Time IM Clinic Ward Follow-Up Appointment Guidance

Patients discharged from the inpatient wards who are not enrolled in the IM Clinic and they cannot get into see their assigned PCM (either at a Branch Clinic or Civ PCM) in what you feel is an appropriate time interval, and deem that they require one time ward follow-up are allowed one visit in the IM Clinic to help facilitate close follow-up when clinically indicated and PCM appointment is not available. If you and the patient agree to continued follow-up in the IM Clinic, then please send an email to Dr. Noveras, the IM Clinic Division Head, who will engage the Directorate of Healthcare Business Enrollment Office to ensure eligibility and assign the patient if eligible.

Patient must be counseled that they need to book an appointment with their assigned PCM for future follow-up.

• Remember, see "Ward Rules" tab for information about HM3 Ausley, our Inpatient Discharge Coordinator for PCM appts.

• You should be actively seeking assistance from him for scheduling hospital discharge PCM follow-up appointments (for PCM in IM Clinic, PCM at Branch Clinic, AND Civ PCM)

• Outside of some very specific circumstances, IF the patient already has an assigned PCM, they should be following up with that PCM after hospital discharge for continuity of care.

• If for extraordinary reasons we need to see them in our clinic, it needs to be clear that we can only support ONE visit and that subsequent follow-ups can only be approved by our DIVO (Dr. Noveras) as above.

If they do not have an assigned PCM, the patient needs to contact Health Benefits at 619-532-8330 for assistance. Note, all requests for enrollment or PCM change made between 21OCT2024 – 01JAN2025 will not be enrolled until around mid-January due to a TRICARE enrollment freeze during a change in contracts.