Radioimaging and Demographic Profiles of Patients with Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Need for the Pragmatic...

Referring patients with severe medical conditions, like brain stroke, from small or rural hospitals to tertiary care centers is often overexploited leading to a kind of defensive medicine. The issue of a patient referral system remains unaddressed in Nepal. In this article, we investigated the legitimacy of referring patients with spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) from country peripheral hospitals to the leading tertiary neurological center in Nepal. We found that 81 out of the 130 ICH patients reviewed in the study were referred. We further show that the classifiers to be considered most in the decision-making on the patient referral are as follows: hematoma volume, midline shift found in radioimaging, ventricular extension of bleeding, and appearance of hydrocephalus. An improper referral of the patient to the tertiary care center decreases limited resources of healthcare services in low-income countries. We believe the study reflects a prevailing belief among healthcare professionals that the current referral system could be improved with the inception of the "hub and spoke" model of healthcare. In this model, a network of secondary health institutions, capable of offering limited treatment, would refer ICH patients to an anchor tertiary institution, respecting the proper dichotomization of patients based on the clinical classifiers. We conclude that the use of the "hub and spoke" model, legitimizing the patient referral system, is posed to offer medical benefits for patients hit by a stroke and would be economically viable for both patients and healthcare services.