When it comes to referrals, physicians are still more likely to pick up the phone than to electronically share the patient's information with another provider, according to a new survey.
Growth Survey Research conducted the poll for San Francisco-based EHR provider, Practice Fusion. It polled 183 primary care medical providers, 74 percent of which were primary care/family practitioners, 22 percent were pediatricians and 4 percent Ob-Gyns. Nearly half of the physicians surveyed had more than 30 physicians in their referral network with 19 percent reporting having over 100.
"Poor communication between medical providers can have deadly results for patients," said Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion. "Missing patient information contributes to the 195,000 deaths from preventable medical errors each year in the U.S.
"Electronic health records have the potential to make the referral process much more streamlined," he said.
The survey's key findings:
- The majority of medical practices surveyed reported that they either call the other provider or give information to the patient when making a referral.
- Only 16 percent of respondents said they use an electronic process to send patient records for referrals.
- Providers who use an electronic process to generate referral letters reported significantly more satisfaction with their referral method than those who reported calling other providers.
According to a recent study about 22 million people are referred to another doctor every year. According to referral patterns in U.S. primary care, providers are sharing patient information through:
- fax (28 percent)
- phone (20 percent)
- patient (19 percent)
- mail (four percent)
Gaps in the exchange of patient information after the referral is issued are problematic, and can lead to increased healthcare costs due to duplication of services. Another problem is that providers issuing referrals often do not receive feedback about the patient's visit with a specialist.
