Skip to main content

Table 1 Size and direction of utilization of specialists* by type and source of referral in incident and control group in the incidence quarter

From: Specialist involvement and referral patterns in ambulatory medical care for patients with dementia in Germany: results of a claims data based case-control study

  

Referred to neuropsychiatry (1)

Referred to radiology (2)

Referred to laboratory medicine (3)

Referred to other disciplines (4)

Referred to all disciplines together* (5)

Row no.

Type of referral

incident cases

controls

incident cases

controls

incident cases

controls

incident cases

controls

incident cases

controls

1

Number of referrals by all disciplines (rows 2 - 7)

528

356

281

567

354

1145

896

3760

2059

5828

2

Number (and %) of referrals by PCP

502 (95.1)

308 (86.5)

109 (38.8)

342 (60.3)

234 (66.1)

733 (64.0)

767 (85.6)

3253 (86.5)

1612 (78.3)

4636 (79.6)

3

Number (and %) of referrals by NP

8 (1.5)

5 (1.8)

136 (48.4)

35 (6.2)

29 (8.2)

8 (0.7)

13 (1.5)

15 (0.4)

186 (9.0)

63 (1.1)

4

Number (and %) of referrals by outpatient units

0

0

5 (1.8)

2 (0.4)

2 (0.6)

9 (0.8)

3 (0.3)

2 (0.1)

10 (0.5)

13 (0.2)

5

Number (and %) of referrals by radiology

0

0

1 (0.4)

5 (0.9)

5 (1.4)

6 (0.5)

2 (0.2)

6 (0.2)

8 (0.4)

17 (0.3)

6

Number (and %) of referrals by laboratory medicine

0

0

0

0

10 (2.8)

37 (3.2)

1 (0.1)

1 (0.0)

11 (0.5)

38 (0.6)

7

Number (and %) of referrals by other disciplines

18 (3.4)

43 (12.1)

30 (10.7)

183 (24.3)

74 (20.9)

352 (30.7)

110 (12.3)

483 (12.9)

233 (11.3)

1061 (18.2)

8

Number of self-referrals

105

76

6

15

6

25

306

1068

423

1184

9

Total number of utilizations (rows 1 + 8)

633

432

287

582

360

1170

1202

4828

2482

7012

10

Self-referrals in % of all utilizations (8 in % of 9)

16.6

17.6

2.1

2.6

1.7

2.1

31.5

25.5

17.0

16.9

  1. * without referrals to specialized internists; PCP = primary care physician, NP = neuropsychiatrist
  2. Reading example: 528 referrals by a physician and 105 self-referrals to neuropsychiatry were found in the incidence quarter; 502 referrals of 528 were done by a primary care physician (95.1%).
  3. The number of referrals is 3% higher than the number of referred persons (see methods chapter)