Medicina Comunitária e Educação em Saúde

Abstrato

Prevalence of Referral Rate from Primary Health Care Centers to King Abdulaziz Medical City in Western Region, Ministry National Guard-Health Affairs, 2020

Muied Ali Alqarny, Amal Maiof Alsofiani

Aim: Assessment of referral rate from Primary health care center (PHC) to main Hospital among patients visiting PHCs. Objectives: To measure the prevalence referral rate from PHCs to main hospital & other factors that could associated with referral rate.

Introduction: The referral is recognized as one of the most important option, proven to effectively reduce the time & resources in dealing with patients. Several authors have stressed the importance of good referral letters as the best mode of transmitting information to promote the understanding of a problem or patient.

Purpose: My work as a physician in the specialized polyclinic in the last 2 years gave me a great motivation to study different aspects of reference and factors which influence it.

Methodology: This study was conducted in 3 PHCs. Study population includes all NGHA patients referred to KAMC from PHCs. Various parameters related to reference were collected including age, gender, referring facility, referring physician, patient profession etc. SPSS 26 was used to calculated prevalence and correlations between acceptance (accepted, active, pending and rejected) and above f actors.

Results: Out of 18567, 1710 patients were referred from 3 PHCs to KAMC. The prevalence rate of reference was 9.24%.384 referred patients were included in the study.

Conclusions: The overall prevalence of reference rate was below 10%. There was a significant correlation found between elapsed days, title of referring physician, refer ring facility with acceptance rate.