Botswana, like many other countries, relies on patient-based partner referral, with index patients informing their own contacts and referring them for treatment.
With c ontract referral the index case is encouraged to notify their partners, with the understanding that health service personnel will notify those partners who do not visit the health service by an agreed date [ 2, 3].
A number of factors thought likely to affect the waiting times were studied: the patient's age at referral, deprivation index, priority (urgency of referral as assigned by the referring GP), screen detected or otherwise, the size of the clinic attended (throughput) and type of first treatment.
By means of the official judicial registration systems of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice (JDS: Justice Documentation System [Justitieel Documentatie Systeem]) both the referrals prior to the index referral and the re-referrals in the five to eight year follow-up period after the index referral were examined.
Prior referrals were defined as referrals registered before the index referral.
Re-referrals were defined as referrals registered after the index referral.
Referral Fees and Referral Power.
These referrals were not necessarily index referral, and had we compared clinical profiles at first contact with specialty care, it is possible that some of the clinical differences noted may have been attenuated.
Screened variables were the following: specialty unit, presenting complaint at index, referral status at index, triage priority at index, age group, sex, index presentation on an intense shift, index presentation on a night shift and during weekends, leaving without being seen (LWBS) at index, entering ED via primary triage at index, time to physician at index, and in-hospital occupancy at index.
The index referral was found in 98 cases.
Patient referral gives the index case the responsibility of contacting partners and asking them to present for treatment.
