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Stephen J. McPhee, MD; Bernard Lo, MD; Glenn Y. Saika, MA; Richard Meltzer

Arch Intern Med. 1984;144(6):1265-1268.

Abstract
• We prospectively studied the communication between 27 referring practitioners and their consultants for 464 consecutive patient referrals from a general internal medicine group practice at a university medical center. The rates of referral among practitioners varied from 0 to 28.1 per 100 patient visits. Though referring physicians provided patient background information in 98% of the cases, they made explicit the purpose of the referral in only 76% of the cases. They contacted consultants directly in only 9% of the cases. In return, consultants communicated their findings to referring practitioners in only 55% of the consultations. Referring physicians who personally contacted consultants or who supplied them with more clinical information were more likely to learn the results of the consultation. While communication between the referring physicians and consultants in this setting is limited, it may be improved if referring physicians supply more clinical information to consultants and contact them directly.

(Arch Intern Med 1984;144:1265-1268)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Jan 3, 1984.

Reprint requests to the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, A-405, University of California, 400 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143 (Dr McPhee).

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