Methods to Describe Referral Patterns in a Canadian Primary Care Electronic Medical Record Database: Modelling Multilevel Count Data

Autor: Bridget L Ryan, Joshua Shadd, Heather Maddocks, Moira Stewart, Amardeep Thind, Amanda L Terry
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
"Referral and Consultation"[Mesh]
"Primary Health Care"[Mesh]
"Electronic Health Records"[Mesh]
"Practice Patterns
Physicians'"[Mesh]
Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics
R858-859.7
Zdroj: Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics, Vol 24, Iss 4 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2058-4555
2058-4563
DOI: 10.14236/jhi.v24i4.888
Popis: Background: A referral from a family physician (FP) to a specialist is an inflection point in the patient journey, with potential implications for clinical outcomes and health policy. Primary care electronic medical record (EMR) databases offer opportunities to examine referral patterns. Until recently, software techniques were not available to model these kinds of multi-level count data. Objective: To establish methodology for determining referral rates from FPs to medical specialists using the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) EMR database. Method: Retrospective cohort study, mixed effects and multi-level negative binomial regression modelling with 87,258 eligible patients between 2007 and 2012. Mean referrals compared by patient sex, age, chronic conditions, FP visits, and urban/rural practice location. Proportion of variance in referral rates attributable to the patient and practice levels. Results: On average, males had 0.26, and females 0.31 referrals in a 12-month period. Referrals were significantly higher for females, increased with age, FP visits, and number of chronic conditions (p
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