Triaging referrals as part of hematology/oncology fellowship training.

We developed an integrative component of the consult rotation for fellows training in hematology/oncology. This component consisted of triaging all consults to the hematology/oncology service of the CAVHS during a 1-year period of time. The goals of the rotation were to improve timeliness of response to consultation requests, to gain experience in differential diagnosis of patients with potential hematologic/oncologic disorders through of such patients, review of decisions with attending physicians, and communication of such with the referring physician. The major benefits were that fellows integrated didactic learning into real-life clinical cases, selected patients for their continuity clinic to assure sufficient variety and complexity of cases, honed their communication skills, learned about referring and attending physicians' styles, and gained practice in clinical vignettes representative of cases they would be expected to see in clinical practice. Disadvantages were time involvement (approximately 2 h/day) and risks of over- or under-referrals. Administratively, there was a significant decline in the wait time for patients to be seen in the hematology/oncology service. In all, this elective is a valuable integrative experience of senior fellows, but may have less value for first year fellows.