OBJECTIVES: To describe the referral of hypertense patients from primary care to a hospital arterial hypertension unit, the quality of the information sent and the profile of the referred patients. DESIGN: A descriptive crossover study. SETTING: The Hospital Clínico of San Carlos in Madrid. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A simple random sample of 368 clinical records belonging to patients attended at the unit over the last 3 years. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 54.6% of patients were referred from primary care. 48.9% of the interclinical (IC) notes were high-quality, with 28.7% acceptable. 36.8% of referrals were considered incorrect, 30.3% because of false unresponsiveness to treatment. Good or acceptable IC notes were associated with 94.1% of correct referrals and only 65.4% of incorrect referrals. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of referrals which were incorrect by the consensus criteria were detected and were caused by inadequate or insufficient medical treatment. There was a statistically significant relationship found between correct referrals and the quality of information sent in the IC note.
OBJECTIVES: To describe the referral of hypertensepatients from primary care to a hospital arterial hypertension unit, the quality of the information sent and the profile of the referred patients. DESIGN: A descriptive crossover study. SETTING: The Hospital Clínico of San Carlos in Madrid. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A simple random sample of 368 clinical records belonging to patients attended at the unit over the last 3 years. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 54.6% of patients were referred from primary care. 48.9% of the interclinical (IC) notes were high-quality, with 28.7% acceptable. 36.8% of referrals were considered incorrect, 30.3% because of false unresponsiveness to treatment. Good or acceptable IC notes were associated with 94.1% of correct referrals and only 65.4% of incorrect referrals. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of referrals which were incorrect by the consensus criteria were detected and were caused by inadequate or insufficient medical treatment. There was a statistically significant relationship found between correct referrals and the quality of information sent in the IC note.
Authors: Nieves Martell-Claros; María Abad-Cardiel; Beatriz Álvarez-Álvarez; Jose Antonio García-Donaire; Alberto Galgo-Nafría Journal: Aten Primaria Date: 2015-02-17 Impact factor: 1.137