Qualitative study on two-way referral system / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the current situation of two-way referral system by qualitative study.Methods The qualitative study was carried out in Department of General Internal Medicine of Peking Union Hospital and 4 clinics under Beijing Gaobeidian Community Health Center from June to December 2009.In-depth interview was conducted on 6 patients,who were referring from community health center to tertiary hospital and 16 general practitioners in the community.The method of thematic framework was used for data analysis.Results Only 1 of the 6 patients,who made the appointment,completed the two-way referral.From the view of the patients,the interrupt of the two-way referral was due to long-time waiting,inconvenient transportation to the hospital,availability of specialists,unsmooth process of referral and unsatisfied doctors.However,the community health service staff thought that difficulties of the two-way referral originated from the system,doctors,patients,and doctor-patient relationship.Sometimes patients distrusted doctors both in hospital and in community; communications between doctors or between doctors and patients were less efficient; patients had multiple choice for their primary care and they may go to any hospital freely bypass community-based referral system; patients had excessive expectation for medicine and doctors; some patients paid less attention to their own health,and so on.For improvement of the two-way referral system,the community health service staff proposed concrete measures in terms of relevant policy,the hospital,community health service,the doctors and patients; they emphasized the importance of upgrading their own communication ability and professional skills for primary care.Conclusions Many factors may influence successful implement of two-way referral,so it is necessary to improve the relevant policy and procedures and to upgrade medical staff in community.