Internal medicine residents identify gaps in medical education on outpatient referrals
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Internal medicine residents identify gaps in medical education on outpatient referrals Masha J. Slavin* , Mangala Rajan and Lisa M. Kern*
Abstract Background: Relevant clinical information is often missing when a patient sees a specialist after being referred by another physician in the ambulatory setting. This can result in missed or delayed diagnoses, delayed treatment, unnecessary testing, and drug interactions. Residents’ attitudes toward providing clinical information at the time of referral and their perspectives toward training on referral skills are not clear. We sought to assess internal medicine residents’ attitudes toward and experiences with outpatient referrals. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in October–December 2018 of all internal medicine interns and residents affiliated with a large, urban internal medicine residency program in New York, NY. We used a novel survey instrument that included 13 questions about attitudes toward and experiences with outpatient referrals. We used descriptive statistics to characterize the results. Results: Overall, 122 of 132 residents participated (92% response rate). Respondents were approximately equally distributed across post-graduate years 1–3. Although 83% of residents reported that it is “always” important to provide the clinical reason for a referral, only 11% stated that they “always” provide a sufficient amount of clinical information for the consulting provider when making a referral. Only 9% of residents “strongly agree” that residency provides sufficient training in knowing when to refer patients, and only 8% “strongly agree” that residency provides sufficient training in what information to provide the consulting physician. Conclusions: These results suggest a substantial discrepancy between the amount of information residents believe they should provide at the time of a referral and the amount they actually provide. Many residents report not receiving adequate training during residency on when to refer patients and what clinical information to provide at the time of referral. Improvements to medical education regarding outpatient referrals are urgently needed. Keywords: Primary care, Medical education, Ambulatory referrals
Background Referrals from one physician to another in the ambulatory setting are routine, happening multiple times a day for any given physician. Several studies have demonstrated inadequate communication between referring primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists [1–3]. Consequences of inadequate communication include missed or delayed diagnoses, delayed treatment, unnecessary testing, and drug interactions [2, 4]. Multiple * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA
reasons have been proposed for insufficient information being conveyed by the referring PCP to the consulting specialist, including undervaluing of and inadequate compensation for provider communication, which can be a time-consuming endeavor [4, 5],
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