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ADMITTING SERVICES

BWH Patient Access Services
617-732-7448; Director of Admitting: 617-732-7453

Patient Access Services includes Admitting, Bed Management, OB Admitting, Reservation Center, Information Desk, Family Liaison Service, Inpatient Accounts, MD Connect and the International program. All non-emergent admissions, surgical procedures and Preadmission Test Center appointments must be scheduled though the Reservation Center (617-732-7448). The following information is required at the time of booking:

* date of admission
* special bed needs (ICU, monitored, radium, etc.)
* patient's name, address, telephone, date of birth and diagnosis
* planned procedure, procedure date and/or treatment plan
* clinical information sufficient to support setting choice
* complete insurance information
* PCP/Referring physician's name, address and telephone

IMPORTANT PATIENT ACCESS TELEPHONE NUMBERS
- Bed management 617-732-7450
- Director 617-732-7453
- Family Liaison 617-732-7440
- Financial Arrangements 617-732-4087
- International Program 617-732-5777
- MD-Connect 617-732-8093
- OB Admitting 617-732-4005
- Reservation Center 617-732-7448

MGH ADMITTING: PATIENT ACCESS SERVICES
The Patient Access Services Department includes General Admitting, Patient Financial Services, Emergency Department Registration, Outpatient and Telephone Registration and the International Program

General Admitting
General Admitting, located on Gray One, provides several vital services, as listed below. From 12 midnight to 7 am, General Admitting operates from the ED Registration area in White 1.

Scheduling: The RSVP center schedules the Operating Room as well as Inpatient, Bedded Outpatient (BOP) and Surgical Day Care Unit (SDCU) admissions.

Minimal requirements for scheduling a patient include the following:
* patient's name
* patient's unit number
* patient's date of birth or social security number
* name of admitting (staff) physician
* diagnosis
* procedure planned
* insurance information: policy number, subscriber name and referral number if available
* primary care physician
* expected length to stay
* admission status (e.g., inpatient, observation, outpatient surgery)
* special needs/requests (e.g., lead-lined room, private room, infectious disease precautions)

Patient Interview: The patient interviewers verify demographic and insurance information with patients directly, either by telephone or in person.

Pre-Certification/Benefits: The Financial Access Unit (FAU) obtains payer pre-certification for inpatient, BOP and SDCU admissions and does insurance benefits verification.

Bed Assignment: The Patient Placement unit assigns beds for all inpatient admissions and bedded outpatients. ICU beds are assigned in conjunction with the triage nurse. The Patient Placement representatives also process death certificates.

Surgical/Elective Admissions (Inpatient and Transient)
Once the decision to admit and/or do a procedure has been made, contact the Admitting Services RSVP Center (617-726-3388) to schedule the OR date and time as well as the admission. An appointment for pre-admission testing, if needed, is scheduled at the same time.

The Financial Access Unit will obtain pre-certification from the patient's insurance or managed care company. If the patient does not have insurance, he/she is referred to a Patient Financial Services counselor who will investigate the patient's eligibility for government programs e.g., MassHealth and Free Care. The Admitting Department must approve a noninsured patient admission prior to proceeding.

Urgent/Emergent Admissions
Emergency admissions can be made through the Emergency Department (ED) if work-up and evaluation are required before diagnosis and/or treatment plan or through General Admitting if the diagnosis and treatment plan are known. To admit a patient emergently without utilizing the ED, call the Admitting Department's RSVP Center at 617-726-3388 (7 am - 5 pm) or the Patient Placement Unit at 617-726-3393 (5 pm - 7 am).

Hospital to Hospital Transfer Coordination
A Transfer Access Coordinator (TAC) can be reached at 617-726-3384 to facilitate the transfer of inpatients from other facilities to MGH. You must provide the patient's name, diagnosis, procedure plan and admitting physician. Transfer Access Coordinators coordinate the conversation between the referring and MGH attending physicians, and the patient's admission and transportation to the hospital.

The coordinator will contact the other facility for insurance and demographic information. The TAC and/or shift triage nurse will coordinate bed assignment and transfer time. Both routine and critical care transportation of the patient from the transferring facility to MGH by AMR Ambulance Services can be arranged through the TAC.

Note: Except in the case of a life threatening emergency, patients should stay at the sending facility until arrangements have been made with the accepting MGH patient care unit and insurance authorization has been received.

Patient Financial Services (PFS)
Patient Financial Services counselors are on site in General Admitting (Gray One), the Emergency Department and in the Wang ACC lobby. Any patient receiving services at the MGH who is not insured should be referred to PFS at 617-726-2191 for information regarding assistance programs such as MassHealth, Free Care, etc.

International Patient Center
The International Patient Coordinators provide a range of services for international patients in addition to the traditional Registration and Admitting Office functions. These services include making travel and accommodation arrangements, providing estimates for the total episode of care, serving as the liaison between the patient/patient's family, the doctor(s) and/or hospital and consolidating hospital and physician bills.

BEDDED OUTPATIENT PROGRAM: 617-726-3393
A bedded outpatient is any patient who is expected to stay in an inpatient bed for fewer than 24 hours. The are two types of bedded outpatients are:

(1) Observation patients are outpatients expected to stay in an inpatient bed fewer than 24 hours and whose condition requires hospital level care (monitoring, treatment and/or assessment). This includes:

• patients with symptoms requiring further testing, observation or assessment to determine the diagnosis and appropriate treatment


• patients with symptoms of unknown etiology expected to respond to treatment within a 24-hour period


• any RPPR patient (see below) who develops a clinical condition that requires evaluation, treatment or monitoring that goes beyond what is considered routine post-procedure recovery.