RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Referral processes and wait times in primary care
JF Canadian Family Physician
JO Can Fam Physician
FD The College of Family Physicians of Canada
SP 619
OP 624
VO 63
IS 8
A1 Neimanis, Ieva
A1 Gaebel, Kathryn
A1 Dickson, Robert
A1 Levy, Richard
A1 Goebel, Cindy
A1 Zizzo, Angelo
A1 Woods, Anne
A1 Corsini, John
YR 2017
UL http://www.cfp.ca/content/63/8/619.abstract
AB Objective To evaluate the response times to requests for consultations from FPs and the wait times for patient appointments.Design Mailed invitation to participate in a survey about non-FP specialist consultation requests from April 28 to May 9, 2014.Setting Hamilton, Ont.Participants All active physicians with community practices from the Department of Family Medicine at St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences.Main outcome measures All non-FP specialist consultation requests for a 2-week period.Results Thirty-four practices (9.6% response rate) collected data on 816 consultation requests. Requests for referrals were most commonly made to the following 5 specialties: dermatology, surgery, gastroenterology, orthopedics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Overall, 36.4% of the requests for consultation received no response from the non-FP specialist’s office by the end of the follow-up period. The mean wait time for a patient appointment was 60.1 days (range 23.3 to 168.5 days). Five specialties had particularly lengthy wait times of 105.9 to 168.5 days.Conclusion Allowing 5 to 7 weeks for a response from a non-FP specialist, there was still a 36.4% nonresponse rate (similar to a pilot survey administered in 2010). Patient and physician frustration is certainly heightened and more office time and energy is expended when no acknowledgment of a referral is received within 7 weeks. This gives our community wait times much longer than those reported by any of the national bodies.