1073358
Expert
Patient presents to the Ambulatory Care unit. The cardiologist performs a heart cath and makes the decision the patient needs to be admitted, and that the cardiothoracic surgeon needs to see the patient in consultation to determine if the patient is a surgical candidate. The cardiothoracic surgeon sees the patient in the ambulatory care unit as the patient is waiting for an inpatient bed; however, the cardiologist possibly already hand wrote the orders for the admission. Would this consultation done by the cardiothoracic surgeons be considered an inpatient consultation or an outpatient consultation? Example: Cardiology writes admit orders at 10 a.m., heart surgeon sees patient at 10:30 a.m., patient sent to inpatient bed at 1 p.m.