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PHYSICIAN-HOSPITAL ISSUES

Emergency Department Unassigned Call Coverage

  1. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the provision by hospitals of adequate staffing, facilities, equipment, and other resources for emergency departments;

  2. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the availability of appropriate financial and other resources by hospitals for physicians who staff emergency departments;
  3. The North Carolina Medical Society opposes the development of additional emergency departments unless it can be shown that adequate staffing, including specialty coverage; equipment; and other resources will be provided to handle all cases in a timely manner;
  4. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the provision by hospitals of adequate operating room availability and adequate staffing to take care of emergency and urgent surgical cases in a timely fashion;
  5. The North Carolina Medical Society supports payment by hospitals to physicians who take unassigned call coverage;
  6. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the development of core credentials for each specialty, approved by the medical staff, in an attempt to balance the need for general call coverage and specialization, and to ensure a clear understanding of what is expected of credentialed physicians;
  7. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the right of organized medical staffs to make best efforts to schedule physician members to take unassigned call in their core-privilege areas; however, the North Carolina Medical Society opposes any requirement for care beyond stabilization and appropriate referral of patients requiring care that is beyond the normal practice parameters of physicians who have limited their practice to a subspecialty;
  8. The North Carolina Medical Society supports measures that would allow rural hospitals to expedite transfers of patients to appropriate referral centers when deemed necessary by the physician on call;
  9. The North Carolina Medical Society supports the development of specialty specific call coverage arrangements coordinated among physicians, hospitals, and EMS providers in a given region, especially in those regions where some hospitals are unable to provide 24/7 call coverage for that specialty, to expedite appropriate care for patients.

(Report K-2008, Resolution 13-2007, adopted 10/19/2008)
(reaffirmed, Reaffirmation Report-2013, Item 74, adopted 10/26/2013)
(reaffirmed, Board Report-2018, Item 85, adopted 11/3/2018)