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In medicine, referral is the transfer of care for a patient from one clinician or clinic to another by request. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Tertiary care is usually done by referral from primary or secondary medical care personnel.
A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children ( pediatrics ), cancer ( oncology ), laboratory medicine ( pathology ), or primary care ( family medicine ).
Ideally, the primary care physician acts on behalf of the patient to collaborate with referral specialists, coordinate the care given by varied organizations such as hospitals or rehabilitation clinics, act as a comprehensive repository for the patient's records, and provide long-term management of chronic conditions.
A tertiary referral hospital (also called a tertiary hospital, tertiary referral center, tertiary care center, or tertiary center) is a hospital that provides tertiary care, [1] which is a level of health care obtained from specialists in a large hospital after referral from the providers of primary care and secondary care. [2]
In other countries patient self-referral to a medical specialist for secondary care is rare as prior referral from another physician (either a primary care physician or another specialist) is considered necessary, regardless of whether the funding is from private insurance schemes or national health insurance. [citation needed]
There is a large volume research indicating that self-referral has a major effect on increasing medical costs in the US. David Levin estimated the cost of unnecessary self-referred imaging in 2004 to be, conservatively, $16 billion per year. [3] There are several examples showing that self-referral increases utilization and costs:
Medical practitioners of internal medicine are referred to as ... The effectiveness and efficiency of the specialist referral process is an area of potential ...
Electronic referrals can result in considerable benefits for service providers. Firstly at the patient level, e-referrals ensure significant improvements to follow-up care coordination [4] by the creation of accurate and timely referrals. Medical decisions are enhanced as each provider involved has the full patient information available to them ...