ArticleThe Pan African medical journal2019
Prevalence and determinants of self referrals to a District-Regional Hospital in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa: a cross sectional study.
Article in The Pan African medical journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Healthcare workers' perspectives on patient bypassing of Primary Health Care facilities in Mpumalanga province, South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Article
- Assessing health service satisfaction among beneficiaries in Cameroon: a cross-sectional study to inform healthcare improvement.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Evaluating referrals between rural district hospitals and a regional hospital in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Characteristics and reasons non-urgent self-referred patients visit the emergency department in Kimberley, South Africa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- Self-referral practice among patients attending outpatient department of Northwest Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia: a multi-center cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Exploring patient referral practices of traditional healthcare practitioners in Soshanguve, Gauteng Province, South Africa.African health sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Capturing What Matters with Patients' Bypass Behavior? Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study in China.Patient preference and adherence · 2023Article
- Patterns of orthopedic and trauma admissions to a tertiary teaching and referral health facility in Kenya: Chart review.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Self-referral practice and associated factors among women who gave birth in South Gondar zone primary hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study design.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Self-referrals and associated factors among laboring mothers at Dilla University Referral Hospital, Dilla, Gedeo Zone, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.BMC women's health · 2022Article
- Obstetric referral processes and the role of inter-facility communication: the district-level experience in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.Ghana medical journal · 2022Article
- Self-referral and associated factors among patients attending adult outpatient departments in Debre tabor general hospital, North West Ethiopia.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- A Study of Patients' Willingness to Pay for a Basic Outpatient Copayment and Medical Service Quality in Taiwan.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Performance of quality improvement teams and associated factors in selected regional referral hospitals in Tanzania: a cross-sectional study.The Pan African medical journal · 2021Article
- Diabetic retinopathy service delivery and integration into the health system in Pakistan-Findings from a multicentre qualitative study.PloS one · 2021Article
- Article
- Perceived quality of primary healthcare post-National Health Insurance pilot implementation.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2021Article
- Assessing Facilitators and Barriers to Referral of Children Under the Age of Five Years at Ndirande Health Centre in Blantyre, Malawi.Global pediatric health · 2021Article
- Do patients bypass primary care for common health problems under a free-access system? Experience of Taiwan.BMC health services research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionSelf-referrals to inappropriate levels of care result in an increased patient waiting time, overburdening of higher levels of care, reduced primary healthcare utilisation rate and increasing healthcare costs. Furthermore, self-referral places an additional encumbrance on various levels of care as allocation of resources and infrastructure cannot be accurately planned, based on the facility catchment population. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinants of patient self-referral at the out-patient department of Stanger Hospital, KwaZulu-Natal between January and June 2017.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted at the out-patient department in Stanger Hospital, using interviewer administered questionnaires to collect information from 385 patients, through convenience sampling, between January and June 2017. Multivariable regression analysis was used to test for factors associated with self-referral.
resultsof the 385 patients interviewed 36% (n = 138) were self-referrals. Most of the self-referrals were male (51.5%) and of the African race (57.2%). Five institutional factors namely: care received from healthcare workers (91.3%); waiting times (88.4%); help offered (87%); treatment and attitude of healthcare workers (63%) and availability of medication (55.8%) were considered as the main drivers of self-referral. Multivariable regression analysis established a significant positive association between patient self-referral and age (40 years and below), attitude of healthcare workers, quality of care received form healthcare workers, waiting times and the availability of diagnostic tests.
conclusionThis study indicates that most patients attending Stanger Hospital do comply with the prescribed referral pathway, however a significant proportion still bypass the referral system.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.