A special Board of Trustees oversight group has recommended a pilot test for the new National Psychiatrist Referral Service, proposed as an APA member benefit.

The five-member group appointed in March by APA President Rodrigo Muņoz, M.D., is working with APA staff on implementation of the testing phase. The Board endorsed the referral service at its March meeting.

The goal of the APA-sponsored referral service is to allow individuals in the U.S. and Canada to call a toll-free telephone number to receive the names of participating APA-member psychiatrists who share the same ZIP code as the caller. If there are fewer than two participants in a ZIP code area, the system will then search the nearest ZIP code and supply the telephone numbers of three participating psychiatrists or the phone number for the appropriate district branch or other local referral source identified by the district branch.

"This service can be a tremendous benefit to our members, both in terms of patient referrals and in our relations with the public, but we have to make certain it will work uniformly and on a large scale before we take it national," said Alfred Herzog, M.D., speaker-elect and the member of the board appointed by President Muņoz to chair the oversight group.

The service will be tested in a district branch or state society in each of the seven APA Areas beginning in the summer and continuing through November, Herzog said.

The Division of Public Affairs (DPA) is surveying district branches to determine their willingness to take referral calls and to encourage their members to participate in the service. "We must make every effort to consult with and involve our district branches and their leadership in implementing this program," said Herzog.

Beginning in May, DPA will mail a brochure to 35,000 members promoting the service. Respondents will be sent an enrollment kit, which will provide additional details. Members who return the enrollment form will be included in the test database.

The seven district branches or state societies participating in the pilot test will be determined by preset criteria, including willingness to participate and the number of district branch members enrolled in the database.

"We should know the results by year's end," said Herzog. "If all goes well, we can take the project national early in 2000 and then consider possible expansion of the service to the Internet, even linking it with other referral systems, such as the AMA's."

Other Board members on the oversight group are Herbert Peyser, M.D., Marcia Goin, M.D., Harold Eist, M.D., and Drew Clemens, M.D.