Referral rates and patterns in primary care department, Khamis Mushayt, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To study the relationship of referral rates to some variables related to doctors' characteristics, patients' characteristics, and location of the practice from the nearest secondary care hospital. Methods: All primary health care (PHC) physicians (N=45) working in 10 PHC clinics during March 1992 participated in the study. A special form was designed to collect daily data from each clinic for all patients attending such clinics during the study period regarding; age, sex, diagnosis, referral etc. Another form was designed to collect data from the doctors' register regarding doctors' sex, years since qualification, type of postgraduate study, and nationality. Results: Highly significant variabilities among PHC physicians were observed in their referral rates to secondary care hospital services. These variabilities were significantly related to some doctors and patients characteristics, as well as location of the practice. Conclusion: There is need to establish guidelines for referrals and use of investigations by PHC physicians in Saudi Arabia who are recruited from different health care models, and with different educational and cultural backgrounds. There are also need for further studies to elucidate the impact of such guidelines on appropriate use of secondary care services and decrease cost.