ArticleOman medical journal2020
Evaluation of Hospital Referral Notes for Pulmonary Function Tests at Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Oman.
Article in Oman medical journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessment of formats and completeness of paper-based referral letters among urban hospitals in Rwanda: a retrospective baseline study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThere is substantial increase in referrals for investigations at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH). Evaluating the quality of hospital referral notes (RNs) is necessary from diagnostic, patient, and economic perspectives. RNs for pulmonary function tests (PFTs) can be considered as representative of the array of tests performed at SQUH.
methodsThis cross-sectional study evaluated the quality of RNs based on 'completeness' for all consecutive patients referred for PFTs at SQUH over six months. Evaluation included documentation of demographic features, RNs date, priority for investigation, referral reason, pulmonary and relevant medical and smoking history for spirometry RNs, and addition of hemoglobin level for full lung functions (Full-LuFs) tests. The proportion of complete RNs was determined and analyzed separately to study association of spirometry and full-LuFs tests with source and reasons for referral.
resultsOnly 644 of 683 RNs were available for analysis. Smoking history was stated in only 3.3% of all RNs; hence, it was excluded from the analysis. RNs were complete only in 12.4% of cases for spirometry and 14.4% for full-LuFs tests. RNs for patients who primarily had pulmonary disease were proportionately incomplete than those for patients with other reasons (
conclusionsThere is a need to improve the quality of RNs at SQUH. Referring doctors must be made aware of the importance of completeness of RNs to improve test reporting, patient management and satisfaction, and reduce financial burden on hospital exchequer.
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