Healthcare :: What Influences a Patient?s Decision to Complete a Specialist Referral?

About 80 percent of patients referred to a specialist by their primary care physician complete the referral within three months finds a study of 776 patients from the offices of 133 physicians in 81 practices and 30 states.

According to the 132 referred patients who did not see a specialist, the most common reasons for choosing not to complete the referral were (1) the patient?s belief that the health problem had resolved (47.5 percent); (2) lack of time (37.3 percent); and (3) the patient disagreed with the physician on the need for the referral (26.5 percent).

Moreover, patients who requested the referral were more likely to complete the referral than those who did not (92.4 percent vs. 81.9 percent).

Further analysis revealed that patients in Medicaid plans were less likely than others to complete the referral and more likely to experience a health plan denial. Moreover, the longer duration of the patient relationship with the primary care physician and the primary care physician/staff scheduling of the specialty appointment were both positive predictors of referral completion.

The authors conclude that referral completion is a negotiation process between doctors and patients and is strongly influenced by continuity of the doctor-patient relationship. They suggest that referral completion rates may be increased by assisting patients with scheduling their specialty appointments and promoting continuity of care.

Specialty Referral Completion Among Patients Referred From Primary Care Practices: Results from the ASPN Referral Study
Christopher B. Forrest, M.D., Ph.D., et al


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