A patient referral and counter-referral management system for hospitals

Abstract

The increasing demand for superior medical attention, in addition to the low amount of resources in many of our country's health care institutions, has made patient referral and counter-referral an important administrative process that begins with a referral from a lower capacity institution to one with more complex assistance and diagnoses, and ends with a counter-referral to the original institution, with a specific diagnosis, information on the services administered and indications for further assistance. Poor communication among hospital professionals can sometimes result in unnecessary costly referrals and late transfers that can prove deadly. This article presents an informatic system developed with Free Open Source Software technology that encourages an efficient usage of Dr. Noel H. Sbarra Specialized Hospital services, to improve the interaction among professionals of the health care network, in order to increase the capacity of the primary health care center and, thus, avoid the unnecessary transfer of younger patients. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.