title: Reason for referrals among military primary care physicians.
abstract: In order to assess the reasons for high referral rates to secondary medical care services in the Israel Defence Force-Medical Corps, we conducted a study in which 28 physicians in five primary care clinics took part. Seven hundred thirty-seven patients were referred to specialists. The referral reasons were learned from questionnaires filled in for each of these patients. The study shows that factors related to the physicians are important in determining when referral is made: Israeli medical graduates showed less confidence than their peer graduates outside of Israel. A possible explanation is that the Israeli graduates are better prepared for working in a scientific, sophisticated medical environment rather than the ambulatory primary care environment.
authors.affiliation: Israel Defence Forces-Medical Corps.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zvieli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Steinherz
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel; D010821:Physicians, Family; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires