Implementation of web-based hospital specialist consultations to improve quality and expediency of general practitioners’ care: a feasibility study

Table 3 General practitioner’s referral option compared to the specialist’s advice in the Web-based consultation and the (potential) referral reduction per medical condition

	Specialist’s referral advice
General practitioner’s referral option	Overall [n = 70]	Refer patient [n = 20]			Treat patient in primary care [n = 50]
General practitioner’s referral option	Overall [n = 70]	Total	OPC^b visit	No OPC^b visit	Total	OPC^b visit	No OPC^b visit
Refer patient	28	12	9	3	16	3	13
Call the specialist	35	7	2	5	28^a	3	24
Treat patient in primary care	7	1	1	0	6	1	5
	Lumbosacral radicular syndrome		Thyroid dysfunction		Knee complaints		Total
Referral reduction per medical condition (95% CI^c)^d	100% (20–100)		38% (10–74)		44% (22–69)		46% (28–66)^d
Potential referral reduction per medical condition (95% CI^c)	57% (20–88)		69% (50–83)		46% (26–67)		59% (46–71)

^aUnknown whether or not one of the patients visited the outpatient department within the 2 months follow-up period
^bOPC: Outpatient clinic: the patient visited /did not visit the OPC within the 2 months follow-up period
^c95% CI: 95% Confidence Interval
^dThis referral reduction was calculated as follows (see line “Refer Patient”): (total number of treat patient in primary care by specialist – OPC visit) / overall number in the line “refer Patient” = (16–3)/28*100%

ISSN: 2731-4553