title: [The decision to hospitalize. Apropos of a survey of 539 hospitalizations requested by general practitioners].
abstract: Reasons for hospitalization. A study about 539 hospitalizations decided by general practitioners. In this paper hospitalization is studied from the point of view of the general practitioner (GP) who is the most frequent supplier of in-patients. Five GP's practising in the southern suburbs of Paris have analysed their decision to hospitalize a total of 539 patients over one year. Owing to the number of hospital units available in that area and to the variety of diseases treated, it is understandable that these patients were referred to not less than 62 different units. Nevertheless, two-thirds of the patients were referred to 3 units: the Regional Hospital Centre (CHR) and 2 private hospitals. The majority of surgical patients were referred to the private sector, the choice of the unit in such cases being determined by the surgeon's skills as experienced or heard of by the GP. The CHR attracts GP's by its departments of internal medicine and specialties. The notoriety of a department as a whole or that of particular physicians working in the department explains the GP's choice. The degree of uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis, which varies with the nature of the disease requiring hospitalization, divides the departments into two categories: over one-half of the patients with a known diagnosis were referred to surgical departments, whereas 41 percent of those with unknown or uncertain diagnoses were sent to the internal medicine department.
authors.affiliation: Groupe de recherche en médecine générale Faculté de médecine, Paris, XI.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doumenc
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ducarre
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molinari
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ourabah
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valarche
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bucquet
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Letourmy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010297:Paris; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
vernacular_title: La décision d'hospitaliser. A propos d'une enquête sur 539 hospitalisations demandées par des généralistes.