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Factors influencing physician referrals to emergency departments
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2002 |
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| Clinical Topic: The premise that customer satisfaction leads to repeat business is well documented in literature (Guetek, 1995). Extending this premise to the medical field, it seems reasonable to infer that physician satisfaction is related to physician referrals, a form of repeat business. While this inference seems "reasonable," little research exists regarding the relationship between physician satisfaction and physician referrals to EDs. The purpose of this research is to explore the physician ED referral processes, identify variables influencing ED referral practices, and assess the relationships between physician satisfaction and physician ED referrals. Implementation: Participants consisted of 125 physicians from the Midwest spanning 30 different specialty areas. The majority of the physicians were randomly selected (n=103) and a convenience sample consisted of 22 physicians. Each physician participated in a face-to-face interview where he or she was presented with 16 key criteria and asked to rate how much each factor contributed to his or her ED referral decision. Participants also completed the SERVQUAL questionnaire that measured physician expectations of the ED and physician perceptions of the ED's performance on 22 service quality dimensions. Outcomes: A MANOVA analysis found no significant differences between the two recruitment groups. Therefore, both samples were combined for further analysis. Overall, individual items from both the key criteria and the SERVQUAL accounted for more regression model variance than factor solutions generated by both data sets. Results of the key criteria analyses indicated that the second most important criterion - "your satisfaction with the ED" - accounted for the most variance in the overall ED quality, overall physician satisfaction, and the referral decision regression models. Analyses of the SERVQUAL data indicated that the performance data was the best predictor of overall ED quality, overall physician satisfaction, and the referral decision. Recommendations: This research demonstrates that a link exists between physician satisfaction and ED referral decisions. Therefore, ED managers would benefit from assessing the expectations of referring physicians by: 1) surveying the needs of referring physicians; 2) continually monitoring physician satisfaction; and 3) initiating follow-up with physicians who refer patients to their ED. [Research Poster Presentation] |
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Primary Investigator
Cindy Lefton, RN, PhD
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P.I. Institution Name
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
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Contact Address
5560 Waterman, 2E
St. Louis, MO, 63112
USA
Contact E-mail
qu714@aol.com
Contact Telephone
(314) 725-7771
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Secondary Investigators
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