SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-To Call or Not to Call a Consult? Evaluating Consult Etiquette

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This study examined the culture and etiquette of calling consults at Duke University School of Medicine, because communication between primary teams and consultants is critical for safe, effective care, yet often feels unpleasant or adversarial. The authors surveyed medical students, residents, and hospital medicine and emergency medicine providers using a cross-sectional questionnaire.<br /><br />The survey explored how clinicians learned to request consults, how often they experienced negative consult interactions, what factors contributed to those experiences, and how those experiences affected future practice. Most respondents reported receiving some form of training on consult calls, but the training was not standardized. Common sources of learning included instruction from interns/residents, attending physicians, and experience over time.<br /><br />Key findings showed that negative consult experiences were common despite prior training. Women reported negative consult interactions more frequently than men. Emergency medicine providers also reported more negative experiences than internal medicine providers. These negative encounters had meaningful consequences: respondents reported feeling anxious at work, questioning their knowledge or the validity of consults, increased burnout, and becoming less likely to call certain services. Some also reported positive effects, such as expanding medical knowledge and improving future consults, but the overall impact leaned negative.<br /><br />The authors conclude that Duke lacks institution-wide guidelines for consult etiquette, and that current training is inconsistent. Next steps include surveying consultants to better understand their perspective and developing system-level strategies to promote respectful, collaborative consult communication.

Asset Subtitle

Alexandra Lee

Meta Tag

Author List Alexandra Lee, Jay Kachoria, Noppon P. Setji, Sarah Gonzalez

Category Research

Concept Consult Calling

Concept Communication Practices

Concept Negative Experience

Concept Best-Practice Guideline

Concept Training

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Duke

Presenting Author Alexandra Lee

Track Quality Improvement

Keywords

consult etiquette

medical consults

consult communication

Duke University School of Medicine

cross-sectional survey

negative consult experiences

burnout

resident training

emergency medicine

interprofessional communication

Consult Calling

Communication Practices

Negative Experience

Best-Practice Guideline

Training