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Specialty Referral Completion Among Primary Care Patients: Results From the ASPN Referral Study
- Source :
- The Annals of Family Medicine. 5:361-367
- Publication Year :
- 2007
- Publisher :
- Annals of Family Medicine, 2007.
-
Abstract
- PURPOSE This study describes referral completion from the perspectives of patients and primary care physicians and identifies predictors of adherence to the referral recommendation. METHODS We observed a cohort of 776 referred patients from the offices of 133 physicians in 81 practices and 30 states. Referring physicians and patients completed self-administered questionnaires at the time of the referral decision and 3 months later. RESULTS Physicians reported that 79.2% of patients referred had a specialist visit, and 83.0% of patients indicated they completed the referral. The most common reasons for not completing the referral were “lack of time” and patient belief that the “health problem had resolved.” The κ statistic for patient-physician agreement on referral completion was 0.34, indicating only fair concordance. Patients in Medicaid plans were less likely than others to complete the referral, and more likely to experience a health plan denial. A longer duration of the patient relationship with the primary care physician and physician/staff scheduling of the specialty appointment were both positive predictors of referral completion. CONCLUSIONS About 8 in 10 patients referred from primary care complete a specialty referral within 3 months. Findings from this study suggest that referral completion rates may be increased by assisting patients with scheduling their specialty appointments and promoting continuity of care.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Time Factors
Adolescent
Referral
media_common.quotation_subject
Concordance
MEDLINE
Specialty
Appointments and Schedules
Denial
Surveys and Questionnaires
Humans
Medicine
Insurance, Physician Services
Child
Referral and Consultation
Original Research
Aged
media_common
Analysis of Variance
Physician-Patient Relations
Primary Health Care
Medicaid
business.industry
Infant, Newborn
Primary care physician
Infant
Middle Aged
United States
Logistic Models
Socioeconomic Factors
Child, Preschool
Health Care Surveys
Family medicine
Emergency medicine
Cohort
Patient Compliance
Female
Family Practice
business
Specialization
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15441717 and 15441709
- Volume :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Annals of Family Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4e67099942c9a4ae7c8a020af0044cd7