Hospital Referral System

Healthcare is the largest industry in the world. An observational study was undertaken for one year from 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2010 to examine the referral system in Kashmir Valley of India on. Demographic distribution of the referred patients revealed that there were 3039 (52.2%) males and 2781(47.8%) females. 3639 (62.5%) belonged to rural back ground while 2181 (37.5%) were from urban background. 4166 (71.6%) were having medical problems and 1654 (28.4%) were surgical patient. Regarding referral of patients from various healthcare facilities the study revealed that only 172 (3%) patients attending the referral clinic were from Sub Centers.217(3.7%) patients were referred from allopathic dispensaries while 670(11.5%) were from

Broadly speaking, hospitals of all types, even tertiary care facilities, are overwhelmed by huge number of patients, particularly the Out Patient Department, who otherwise could have been treated at lower level facilities, and many of them have self-referred, bypassing primary health care or district hospitals(1). An ideal referral system would ensure that patients can receive appropriate, high-quality care for their high problems at low cost and nearby facility possible, given the resources available to the health system, with seamless transfer of information and responsibility as that patient may move up or down the referral chain. Although few referral systems anywhere in the world live up to this ideal fully, but nevertheless the current situation can be

In Kashmir Valley of India the present tertiary health care center where the research was conducted is the only health care centre. The pattern followed in this state is a three tier health care system as at many other places (1). It was observed that 350 patients attended referral clinics every day and so a sample size 15 patients were studied over a period of one year; as there is a situation of over burdening of this 750 bedded hospital so that the authorities could plan some strategies to develop a proper referral system.

Shin-ichi Toyabeetal while studying the pattern of referral of patients from secondary care hospitals to a tertiary care university hospital revealed that 61.2% of the patients were directly admitted to the hospital without referral from other hospitals or clinics. These results suggest that the function of university hospital in Japan is not specialized and that the referral route from the university hospital to aftercare is also unequipped