First Call now connects to neurosurgery, spine

Intermountain Health First Call Command Center now offers a quick and efficient pathway to discuss all neurosurgery and spine-related patient care with a top ranked neurosurgeon. Patients now can be scheduled for follow up, admitted to the hospital or sent to the ED all in the same call. 

“With this new process, we hope to deliver expert opinion directly to the point of care,” said Timothy Ryken, MD, Neurological Surgery. “By having an opportunity to address concerns ahead of time, we can expedite seeing patients who need neurosurgical attention and appropriately redirect those who do not. This reduces the waiting time for patients who need surgery, while reducing the frustration of patients who don’t but have waited weeks or sometimes months for an in-person appointment.”

Chih-Ta Lin, MD, Neurological Surgery, agrees: “First Call gives physicians direct access to a neurosurgeon at any hour of the day. This allows easier coordination and referral to a brain and spine specialist without the wait time. This benefits both physicians and patients seeking help.”

Quick refresher: First Call was activated in April 2019 to serve as a one-stop call for any physician who needed to move a patient into, around and out of a Peaks Region facility. It has continued to expand its scope each year in response to physician and community need and now also provides, among other services:

• Call-ahead processing for ER referrals, with patient details documented prior to arrival.

• Call-ahead for Lutheran Hospice referrals, with patient details documented prior to arrival.

• A full-service directory of the most specialized care and technology, such as ECMO, to facilitate faster patient access.

• Physician call schedules to facilitate physician-to-physician communication.

• Management of all bed planning in every unit to optimize patient flow and staffing levels.

• Coordination of all forms of medical transport, including air.

Physicians can reach the First Call Command Center by calling 1-844-504-0004 from their practices or by dialing extension 80004 from within any Intermountain hospital.

Physicians with questions about the service provided can email Jamie Refalosells, MSN, director of the First Call Command Center. Have a suggestion for how to improve or expand upon the services provided? Please click the button below and take a couple minutes to complete our survey.