Harbor:OOP follow up options

• If no emergent need for Same Day or Next Day Specialty Clinic Follow Up, then follow up in home county / country for referral or have patient call 2-1-1 or One Degree (1degree.org)
• For routine primary care needs (PCP) then send patient back to health plan to arrange follow up.
  • Patient can check insurance card for PCP/health plan details, call for follow up.
  • Flyer to call 2-1-1 File:Looking for a Doctor English & Spanish.pdf
• [Patient wants to switching to DHS]

• For urgent specialist follow up w/in 2-3 weeks,
• OOP: refer patient back to their health plan / PCP for referral
  • Exception: complication within 30 days of an emergent operation / procedure done at Harbor
  • Exception: pediatric orthopedic follow-up for a patient that was seen by orthopedics and reduced / splinted or casted (link for ped ortho f/u instructions)
  • Potential exception: Pediatric CCS Follow Up

New Process (start date: 08/18/2025) For Urgent specialist follow-up less than 12 days: Great news, we can now submit requests for non DHS patients who require referrals to specialists within 12 days!

Steps:

1. When you encounter a non-DHS patient who requires specialty follow up, please place the usual "request for urgent specialty follow-up" as soon as you know this patient will need it.
2. Make sure an appropriate ICD-10 Diagnosis is in the EHR AND in the order "specialty clinic instructions" box (this is key!)
3. Make sure at least a brief ED Note is completed (#2-3 are required for UM to send the info to the OOP health plans)
4. The PAC team will forward to UM, who will then contact the insurance plan and make an appointment for the patient. They will attempt to give this information to the patient before they leave (no need to hold the patient evenings/overnight), but if the patient has left, the patient will be contacted after they leave.

Kep Tips

• Please make sure you have at least one good phone number for every patient in the chart, updated in the demographic section, preferably two.
• Please drop the request for the specialty follow up as soon as you can—the sooner it’s in the better chance PAC/UM can get them an appointment before they leave (they will generally need 2 hours to do this). Same day calls to make appointments for patients will only happen during business hours, after hours patients will get their appointments the next day.
• Please ensure your progress note (with an ICD10 Diagnosis) is done! This needs to be sent to the clinic to help facilitate follow up.

Please give the patient a backup plan. Ask them to contact their primary care doctor/health plan if they don’t hear from us in 2-3 days. UM may contact you to ask for more information, please be kind during these calls—they are taking on extra work to help our patients out! If any issues come up contact Drs Roh or Parmar via Teams/email.

Document with the detailed process and screenshots: OOP Urgent Specialty Follow-Up Step by Step Process (8/18/25)