Study of referral pattern to ophthalmology outpatient department from various departments in the medical college.

The study was aimed at finding out the pattern of referrals to ophthalmology outpatient department (OPD) in a teaching hospital and to provide guidelines for the improvement. Patients referred from various departments of a medical college situated in central India for ophthalmic evaluation were scrutinised for age, sex, diagnosis and the referring OPD. Out of 730 patients referred, 350 (47.95%) were males and 380 (52.02%) were females. The highest referral was found in the age group 45-64 years (22.60%). The highest referral was from the medicine OPD (58.22%) and the lowest was from psychiatry (2.05%). Maximum patients were referred for fundus examination (27.40%). While there were 280 patients (38.36%) who had refractive error, no diagnosis was established in 147 cases (20.14%). Ophthalmic opinion definitely helped patients as well as physician in the management of the patients. The study also stresses on some areas deficient, when unnecessary referrals could be avoided by arranging short annual refreshers courses to acquire basic skills in ophthalmology like visual acuity testing, colour vision, ophthalmoscopy and the diagnosis of common ocular conditions. We believe this kind of activity will help to make our services more efficient and cost effective.