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Referral processes and wait times in primary care

Ieva Neimanis1, Kathryn Gaebel2, Robert Dickson3

  • 1Member of the Department of Family Medicine at St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton in Ontario and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Canadian Family Physician Medecin De Famille Canadien
|August 16, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Physician consultation requests face significant delays, with a 36.4% nonresponse rate from specialists and long patient wait times averaging over 60 days. This impacts healthcare efficiency and patient care.

Area of Science:

  • Medical practice management
  • Healthcare access and delivery

Background:

  • Family physicians (FPs) frequently require specialist consultations for patient care.
  • Understanding referral response and appointment wait times is crucial for efficient healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the response times to consultation requests from FPs.
  • To determine patient appointment wait times with non-FP specialists.

Main Methods:

  • A survey was conducted among active physicians in family medicine practices in Hamilton, Ontario.
  • Data on non-FP specialist consultation requests were collected over a 2-week period in 2014.

Main Results:

  • 36.4% of consultation requests received no response from specialists.
  • The mean wait time for a patient appointment was 60.1 days, with some specialties exceeding 168 days.
  • Dermatology, surgery, gastroenterology, orthopedics, and obstetrics/gynecology were the most frequently requested specialties.

Conclusions:

  • A significant nonresponse rate (36.4%) persists for specialist consultations, even after 5-7 weeks.
  • Lengthy wait times and lack of acknowledgment increase physician and patient frustration.
  • Community wait times exceed national benchmarks, indicating a need for improved referral processes.
Abstract

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