ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 92
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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Factors affecting waiting time of patients referred to
specialty clinics from a family medicine clinic in a tertiary
government hospital
Dr Airam Aseret Bontia, Jonathan Babsa-ay
University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital
Referral waiting time in the healthcare system is an indicator of service delivery and patient satisfaction.
It is the time from referral by a primary care provider to the first actual consultation with a specialist.
Many of the studies on referral waiting time were conducted in developed countries like Canada and
Australia and from a specialist’s perspective. It is poorly understood in developing countries like the
Philippines. Therefore, there is a need to understand the referral waiting time from a primary care
provider’s perspective, particularly in the outpatient setting.
The aim of the research is to describe the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with
length of referral waiting time in a tertiary government hospital in a developing country.
A cross-sectional retrospective chart review of patient records from 2015 to 2019 was conducted.
A total of 366 charts were reviewed. Many of the patients referred to other speciality clinics were
middle-aged adults and females. Median wait times for medical and surgical specialties were 11
(IQR 0–29) and 18 (IQR 6–35) days, respectively (P = 0.003). Nutrition, rehabilitative medicine and
family health unit received the most number of referrals among non-surgical fields. Ophthalmology,
otorhinolaryngology and general surgery received the highest number of referrals among the surgical
fields. Referral waiting times were longest for cardiology (median 125 days; IQR 91–275 days) and
shortest for nutrition (median 0 days; IQR 0–6 days).
Waiting times from a primary care clinic to a specialty clinic at a tertiary government hospital vary
based on urgency, speciality clinic, purpose of referral, presence of comorbidities and chronicity of
condition. Clinical factors found to be significantly associated with referral waiting time include urgency,
type of clinic and purpose of referral. Overall, waiting times to see a specialist were within acceptable
limits, with only one clinic with a longer median waiting time of 125 days.
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