Korean J Fam Pract. 2018; 8(2): 266-272  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2018.8.2.266
Content Analysis of Patients Referred to the Department of Family Medicine in a Tertiary Hospital
Nara Cho, Seungwoo Lee, Seung-hyun Yoo, Sung Sunwoo*
Department of Family Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Sung Sunwoo
Tel: +82-2-3010-3952, Fax: +82-2-3010-3815
E-mail: sws@amc.seoul.kr
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0521-4804
Received: March 20, 2017; Revised: September 6, 2017; Accepted: September 18, 2017; Published online: April 20, 2018.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: It is important to understand the contents of outpatients’ clinic in a department of Family Medicine. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the contents of referrals and characteristics of the patients referred to the department of Family Medicine of a tertiary hospital and analyzed the associated factors of the patients who visited.
Methods: This study was based on a review of medical records of 781 patients who were referred to the department of Family Medicine in a tertiary hospital in 2014. We collected health care-related characteristics of the patients. We compared the number of visits, comorbidities, and symptoms of the patients who actually visited the department of Family Medicine and those who did not. We analyzed the associated factors of the patients who visited, using multivariate logistic regression analyses.
Results: The most common reason for referral was for monitoring cancer survivors (41.6%). The associated factors of patients who visited the department of Family Medicine after referral were referrals to specialist or resident (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.70–3.57), having comorbidities (number of comorbidities 1: OR, 2.96; 95% CI, 1.84–4.78, 2: OR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.63–4.65, 3: OR, 3.47; 95% CI, 1.69–6.92), and presence of symptoms (OR, 6.42; 95% CI, 4.14–9.97).
Conclusion: Primary physicians should undertake comprehensive management of the patients and provide medical care suitable for each patient in order to promote the health of individuals.
Keywords: Family Medicine; Referral; Visit; Primary Care
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