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Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study

Health systems are becoming more complex, regulatory bodies are increasing their vigilance, and reimbursement practices are shifting toward value, making closing the referral loop an imperative for patient safety, regulatory oversight, and financial viability. The aim of this study was to examine th...

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Autores principales: Alabbasi, Khalid H., Kruger, Estie, Tennant, Marc
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9222003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35735661
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/clinpract12030042
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author Alabbasi, Khalid H.
Kruger, Estie
Tennant, Marc
author_facet Alabbasi, Khalid H.
Kruger, Estie
Tennant, Marc
author_sort Alabbasi, Khalid H.
collection PubMed
description Health systems are becoming more complex, regulatory bodies are increasing their vigilance, and reimbursement practices are shifting toward value, making closing the referral loop an imperative for patient safety, regulatory oversight, and financial viability. The aim of this study was to examine the referral pattern in PHC services and whether a significant variation exists among them based on geographic accessibility to a referred hospital. This was a cross-sectional retrospective study that included all sequentially referred patients between 1 January 2019 and 30 December 2021. A pre-initiative comparison could not be performed, as previous data on the traditional referral system could not be collected. The primary outcome measures considered in this study were the referral rate, and the proportion of the documented appointment date. The healthcare facilities’ geographic locations and data of the hospital departments to which the patients were referred were also available. Between 2019 and 2021, the hospital received 52,143 referrals from the 9 designated PHC centres covering 34 districts. In the PHC centres located within the ≤13 km zone, 1 in every 14 patients were referred to the hospital, whereas 1 in every 20 patients visited PHC centres outside this zone. Since the introduction of the Ehalati e-referral system, the number of documented appointment schedules of the referred patients has improved over time by 16.1% (from 79.6% to 95.7%, p < 0.001). Ophthalmologic (17.1%) and dental services (15.4%) received the most referrals among all other specialties, whereas the referral rate for cardiology services was the lowest (2.5%). The documented appointment scheduling record of referred patients has improved significantly since the introduction of the Ehalati e-referral system. However, the results of this study indicate that the proximity of PHC centres to specialised hospitals is more likely associated with higher referral and documented appointment scheduling rates. Strategies that improve scheduling, decrease variation among clinics, and improve patient access will likely improve the closing rates of the referral loop.
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spelling pubmed-92220032022-06-24 Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study Alabbasi, Khalid H. Kruger, Estie Tennant, Marc Clin Pract Article Health systems are becoming more complex, regulatory bodies are increasing their vigilance, and reimbursement practices are shifting toward value, making closing the referral loop an imperative for patient safety, regulatory oversight, and financial viability. The aim of this study was to examine the referral pattern in PHC services and whether a significant variation exists among them based on geographic accessibility to a referred hospital. This was a cross-sectional retrospective study that included all sequentially referred patients between 1 January 2019 and 30 December 2021. A pre-initiative comparison could not be performed, as previous data on the traditional referral system could not be collected. The primary outcome measures considered in this study were the referral rate, and the proportion of the documented appointment date. The healthcare facilities’ geographic locations and data of the hospital departments to which the patients were referred were also available. Between 2019 and 2021, the hospital received 52,143 referrals from the 9 designated PHC centres covering 34 districts. In the PHC centres located within the ≤13 km zone, 1 in every 14 patients were referred to the hospital, whereas 1 in every 20 patients visited PHC centres outside this zone. Since the introduction of the Ehalati e-referral system, the number of documented appointment schedules of the referred patients has improved over time by 16.1% (from 79.6% to 95.7%, p < 0.001). Ophthalmologic (17.1%) and dental services (15.4%) received the most referrals among all other specialties, whereas the referral rate for cardiology services was the lowest (2.5%). The documented appointment scheduling record of referred patients has improved significantly since the introduction of the Ehalati e-referral system. However, the results of this study indicate that the proximity of PHC centres to specialised hospitals is more likely associated with higher referral and documented appointment scheduling rates. Strategies that improve scheduling, decrease variation among clinics, and improve patient access will likely improve the closing rates of the referral loop. MDPI 2022-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9222003/ /pubmed/35735661 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/clinpract12030042 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alabbasi, Khalid H.
Kruger, Estie
Tennant, Marc
Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title_full Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title_fullStr Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title_full_unstemmed Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title_short Strengthening Saudi Arabia’s Primary Health Care through an e-Referral System: A Case Study
title_sort strengthening saudi arabia’s primary health care through an e-referral system: a case study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9222003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35735661
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/clinpract12030042
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