I. Badawi et al., REFERRAL RATES AND PATTERNS IN PRIMARY-CARE DEPARTMENT, KHAMIS-MUSHAYT, SAUDI-ARABIA, Saudi medical journal, 19(2), 1998, pp. 157-161
Objectives: To study the relationship of referral rates to some variab
les related to doctors' characteristics, patients' characteristics, an
d location of the practice from the nearest secondary care hospital. M
ethods: All primary health care (PHC) physicians (N=45) working in 10
PHC clinics during March 1992 participated in the study. A special for
m was designed to collect daily data from each clinic for all patients
attending such clinics during the study period regarding; age, sex, d
iagnosis, referral etc. Another form was designed to collect data from
the doctors' register regarding doctors' sex, years since qualificati
on, type of postgraduate study, and nationality. Results: Highly signi
ficant variabilities among PHC physicians were observed in their refer
ral rates to secondary care hospital services. These variabilities wer
e significantly related to some doctors and patients characteristics,
as well as location of the practice. Conclusion: There is need to esta
blish guidelines for referrals and use of investigations by PHC physic
ians in Saudi Arabia who are recruited from different health care mode
ls, and with different educational and cultural backgrounds. There are
also need for further studies to elucidate the impact of such guideli
nes on appropriate use of secondary care services and decrease cost.