ArticleBMC health services research2022
Today's referral is tomorrow's repeat patient: referrals to and between medical outpatient clinics in a hospital.
Article in BMC health services research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Telephone follow-up as a substitute for standard out-clinic follow-up in CPAP therapy for obstructive sleep apnea patients: a randomized controlled trial.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2024Trial
- Hospital triage of general practice referrals: exploring the role of triage in rejected referrals.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Adequacy of electronic and in-person referrals to endocrinology: a prospective study of primary care and hospital consultations.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Saudi Medical Appointments and Referrals Center (SMARC) Performance Dynamic: A Comparative National Analysis of 2023-2024 Against Baseline Metrics.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Construction and Evaluation of the Bidirectional Referral System in Internet Hospital: Case Study of Children's Hospital in Western China.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Timely access to specialist outpatient care: can applying systems thinking unblock our waiting lists?BMC health services research · 2025Article
- External Vs Internal e-Referrals: Results from a Nationwide Epidemiological Study Utilizing Secondary Collected Data.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2024Article
- The resilient potential behaviours in an Internal Medicine Department: Application of resilience assessment grid.PloS one · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnnecessary referrals in Danish hospitals may be contributing to inefficient use of health services already stretched and under pressure and may lead to delayed treatment for patients. Despite a growing awareness in the literature and in practice of issues related to referrals, there has been relatively little research on referrals between specialists in hospital outpatient clinics and how it can be improved. This study aimed to describe the referral patterns to and within the Medical Department at the University Hospital of Southern Denmark. The Medical Department consists of the following medical specialist outpatient clinics; nephrology, pulmonology, endocrinology, cardiovascular, wound outpatient clinic, and a day hospital.
methodsTwo specialist physicians assessed all referrals to the medical specialist outpatient clinics over one month (from 01 September 2019 to 30 September 2019) using data drawn from the Danish electronic patient record system (Cosmic). Data on referral pattern, and patient age and sex, were statistically analysed to identify and characterise patterns of referral.
resultsFour hundred seventy-one (100%) referrals were included in the study. 49.5% (233) of the referrals were from the hospital and 50.5% (238) from general practitioners (GPs). Of the 233 referrals from the hospitals, 31% (72) were from the Medical Department.
conclusionThe high rate of referrals (31%) from own Medical Department or outpatient clinics may reflect an inefficient internal referral process within the department. Improved collaboration between specialists could have the potential to improve health outcomes, timely access to care and more appropriate healthcare resource utilisation.
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