Limited access to specialist care is associated with poor health outcomes and may be particularly problematic for underserved patients of urban safety-net clinics. Using gastroenterology patients as a representative subset, we focused on internal aspects of the external referral procedure to identify possible causes. We ran a systematic statistical analysis of gastroenterology patients to look at key factors in the referral process: Completeness of the order, documentation of the fax to the specialist, and several measures of referral completion, namely, booking of appointment, attendance at appointment, and correspondence from the specialist back to the clinic. Poor referral management, including incomplete orders, and failed referral transmission, correlated with exacerbated health outcomes and limited access to specialist care.
Notes:
Capstone (Sc.M. in Medical Sciences)--Brown University, 2019
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license
Citation
Boulous, Mark,
"Referral Pain: Poor Referral Quality Correlates with Worse Health Outcomes"
(2019).
Gateways to Medicine, Health Care, and Research.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/p2hs-km28
The Gateways Program at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University provides academically promising, motivated students new pathways to careers in the health sciences. This collection houses scholarly works produced by Master of Science in Medical Sciences (ScM) students …
