Information for Physicians and Nurses

How to Refer a Patient

Obtaining emergent consultation or transferring patients to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center takes only OneCall, day or night, to 1-800-373-4111 or 410-328-1234. Your call will be answered by our Critical Care Transfer Coordinators at Maryland ExpressCare. Physicians can get answers to any question or access any service at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center (STC). The One Call number is for physician use only.

To guide you in the process, we offer the following steps:

Call 1-800-373-4111 or 410-328-1234
Request a trauma consult with a trauma attending
In an effort to streamline your transfer, please provide the following information:
- Direct Call back number
- Patient Name
- Location of Patient
- Diagnosis
- Name of sending Attending Physician, Surgical Resident, Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner to consult with STC attending
- For your convenience, click here for a template to serve as a guideline for giving nursing report.
Our Critical Care Transfer Coordinators will connect you to the STC Attending or will call you back in the event that the STC attending is not immediately available.
Following patient acceptance, the referring physician should stay on the line. Our Coordinators will ask further specific clinical questions.
Every effort will be made to transfer your patient immediately. Our STC Nursing Coordinators will contact the ExpressCare office when there is an appropriate bed to receive your patient. If there is a delay in transfer, our Transfer Coordinators will contact you to update the current status. Interim care guidance will be provided by the STC Attending.
During this time, please prepare the following in anticipation of transport:
- Copy of the Patient's Medical Record
- Copy of all Patient Medications
- Copy of all Patient Lab Values
- Copy of all Radiological Procedures (placed on Film or CD/DVD)
- Transfer Summary (if patient is being transferred from an ICU/Floor)
- If C-Spine has not been cleared by an attending physician, please have patient immobilized using long backboard, straps and neck collar where appropriate (board is for transport only - patient should not stay on board for extensive period of time)
As soon as an appropriate bed has been identified, the Transfer Coordinators will contact you.
The nurse from the sending facility should contact the STC Trauma Resuscitation Unit Nurse at 410-328-8869 to provide a detailed nursing report. Ask for the charge nurse or the nurse receiving your patient. For your convenience, click here for a template to serve as a guideline for giving nursing report.
Following the transfer, you will receive a questionnaire to inquire regarding your opinions on how the process worked. As our customer, we appreciate your honest feedback.

Thank you for your patient referral. For more information about Critical Care Transport Services / University of Maryland ExpressCare and other helpful resources, please click here.

If you would like to receive follow up on your patient transferred to the Shock Trauma Center, please contact our Trauma Nurse Coordinator Robbi Hartsock RN, MSN, PCNP, at 410-328-3042 or rhartsock@umm.edu

This page was last updated on: May 16, 2012.

Obtaining emergent consultation or transferring patients to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center takes only OneCall, day or night, to 1-800-373-4111 or 410-328-1234.