Medicare Patient Referral Networks to Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgeons Across the United States
| Autor: | Georg Kropat, Arian Khorshid, Tyler M. Muffly, Janos Hajagos, J. Gonzalez |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
medicine.medical_specialty Referral Nurse practitioners Urology MEDLINE Medicare Urogynecology Patient referral Interquartile range Humans Medicine Medicare patient Referral and Consultation Retrospective Studies Surgeons business.industry Obstetrics and Gynecology Middle Aged United States Gynecology Family medicine Female Surgery business Medicaid |
| Zdroj: | Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery. 27:126-130 |
| ISSN: | 2151-8378 |
| DOI: | 10.1097/spv.0000000000000751 |
| Popis: | Objective The source of urogynecology patient referrals remains poorly understood. We used novel methods to identify referral networks to female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgeons (FPMRS) and to determine factors associated with physician connections. Methods A retrospective analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data with physician sharing relationships spanning 180 days during 2015 was performed. All patients studied were Medicare beneficiaries. Provider patient-sharing networks were modeled using social network analytics. To visualize the resulting flow of patients from referring providers to FPMRS, we encoded the node and edge data and mapped the data to a map of the United States. Results We studied 206,568 Medicare beneficiaries who were seen by 618 different board-certified FPMRS. Internal medicine physicians followed by nurse practitioners referred the most patients to FPMRS. Over half of referrals were made locally, with patients traveling less than 5 miles from the referring provider to the female pelvic surgeon. The median number of incoming Medicare patient referrals per FPMRS provider was 15 (interquartile range, 12-20) over a 6-month period. The high modularity of the referral network indicates that most providers refer their patients to a few female pelvic surgeons. Conclusions Medicare patient referrals to FPMRS are primarily and proportionally the highest from local internal medicine physicians. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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