BACKGROUND Recognition and referral of sick children to a facility where they can obtain appropriate treatment is critical for helping reduce child mortality. A well-functioning referral system and compliance by caretakers with referrals are essential. This paper examines referral patterns for sick children, and factors that influence caretakers' compliance with referral of sick children to hig...

BACKGROUND GPs have to respond to conflicting policy developments. As gatekeeper they are supposed to manage the growing demand for specialist services and as patient advocate they should be responsive to patients' preferences. We used an innovative approach to develop a referral guideline for patients with chronic knee pain that explicitly incorporates patients' preferences. METHODS A guidel...

The characteristics of patients with non-fatal road traffic injuries who received care from non-referral hospitals are described; an assessment of the difference between the characteristics of patients who received care at a referral hospital and those of patients who were treated at non-referral hospitals is made. A retrospective study, conducted in Chon Buri Province, Thailand, reviewed infor...

Background: The early diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has become increasingly important due to evolving treatment options. IPF patients experience a significant delay in receiving an accurate diagnosis, thus delayed access to tertiary care is associated with higher mortality independently from disease severity. Objective: The aims were to evaluate whether there had been a delay...

BACKGROUND Although under debate, routine screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) is recommended in health care settings. This study explored the utility of different screening and referral strategies for women exposed to IPV in primary health care. METHODS Using a randomized controlled trial design we compared two screening strategies (health care providers [HCP] versus audio computer-...

AIM To explore interpretations of "appropriate" and "inappropriate" elective referral from primary to secondary surgical care among senior clinical and non-clinical managers in five purposively sampled primary care trusts (PCTs) and their main associated acute hospitals in the English National Health Service (NHS). METHODS Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were undertaken with senior ma...

background: based on some estimation more than two million peoples in iran are affected by type 2 diabetes. the present study was designed to evaluate the status of diabetes control among type 2 diabetes patients in kurdistan, west of iran and its associated factors. methods: in our cross sectional study conducted in 2010, 411 type 2 diabetes patients were randomly recruited from sanandaj, capi...

OBJECTIVE To identify characteristics of early arthritis units, that may be associated with better referral eficiency. METHODS A national survey of the 36 early arthritis units (EAU) in Spanish Rheumatology Units in 2004 (SERAP project). Survey collected information about general practitioners (GP) educational program to improve knowledge and practical skills of early arthritis, networking an...

PURPOSE Given concerns about end-of-life care for many nursing home (NH) residents, this study sought to understand factors influencing hospice referral or nonreferral as well as timing of referral. DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted semistructured interviews with personnel from seven participating NHs and two hospices. We interviewed NH directors of nursing regarding facility referral practices...