Implementation of an Electronic Referral System for Outpatient Specialty Care
Poor communication between primary care and specialists often leads to delays, inefficiencies and sub-optimal patient outcomes. This study examined implementation of an electronic referral system (eReferral) that creates direct communication between primary care providers and specialist reviewers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess factors affecting the success of eReferral implementation; transcripts were analyzed using qualitative methods. Primary and specialty care providers were enthusiastic about the system. Primary care providers had favorable attitudes despite a number of challenges including increased workload due to a shift in tasks from specialists and administrative personnel, poor connectivity, and insufficient hardware. System acceptance was driven by perceptions of improved access to specialty care, better appointment tracking, and improved communication between primary and specialty care providers. Synergy among development processes, implementation practices, and technical factors, including human-centered design, iterative development, a phased rollout, and an intuitive user interface, also fostered uptake of the system.
Posted here with permission from AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, pp. 1337–1346, October 2011. Copyright © 2011 American Medical Informatics Association.
- Full Document (pdf format) (File size 0.3 MB)
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Document Details
- Copyright: AMIA
- Availability: Web-Only
- Pages: 10
- Document Number: RP-1433
- Year: 2011
- Series: Reprints
Originally published in AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, pp. 1337–1346. Published online October 2011.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation reprint series. This product is part of the RAND Corporation reprint series. RAND reprints present previously published journal articles, book chapters, and reports with the permission of the publisher. RAND reprints have been formally reviewed in accordance with the publisher's editorial policy, and are compliant with RAND's rigorous quality assurance standards for quality and objectivity.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2012 RAND Corporation.