A computer-based outpatient clinical referral system

The process of generating a clinical referral for a patient, and the result ing transfer of information from the primary care physician to the speciali st and back again, are key components in the struggle to deliver less costl y and more effective clinical care. We have created a computer-based, outpa tient clinical referral application that facilitates: (1) identifying an ap propriate specialist; (2) collecting the clinical, demographic, and financi al data required to generate a referral; and (3) transferring the informati on between the specialist and the primary care physician (PCP). This articl e describes the development of the application itself and several of the kn owledge bases that were created to facilitate this process. Preliminary res ults indicate that the new computer-based referral process is faster to use than conventional methods. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd, All righ ts reserved.