The second strategy was considered necessary to ensure the number of new referrals entering the system does not overwhelm the hospital's capacity and develop into another long wait list.
At present, the referrer enters the referral details in free-text, and it may be that a more structured clinical pro forma might improve this.
Those without evidence of dysplasia at the time of referral were entered into this programme.
The intervention group (IG) comprised referrals who entered the program (n=61) and the comparison group (CG) comprised referrals who did not enter the program (n=60).
More than 90% of all referrals are entered into the GPs computer with the specialist's diagnosis carefully coded (Jick et al, 1991).
A unit clerk reviews each faxed referral and enters patient, referring physician, and family physician information into the rheumatology triage database.
AX, PH, KM, AC and HS reviewed the referral letters, and entered data.
In the next step, the recording conditions and the referral data are entered.
After this referral, patients subsequently entered one of three different physical activity programmes and all patients had one consultation with a dietician.
This strategy could incentivize physician practices to compete for referrals or enter into contractual relationships with endocrinologists or disease management programs, thus focusing scarce resources on the most difficult patients with the greatest need.
