Referral from secondary care and to aftercare in a tertiary care university hospital in Japan.
BACKGROUND
In Japan, all citizens are covered by the national insurance system in which universal free access to healthcare services is promised to everybody. There are no general physicians or gatekeepers in the Japanese healthcare system.


METHODS
We studied the pattern of referral of inpatients from secondary care hospitals to a tertiary care university hospital and the reverse referral under the situations using a geographic information system (GIS), taking paediatric inpatients as an example.


RESULTS
The results showed that 61.2% of the patients were directly admitted to the hospital without referral from other hospitals or clinics and that 82.8% of the inpatients were referred to the outpatient department of the hospital to which they had been admitted. GIS analysis for the inpatients service area showed the hospital functions as both a secondary care hospital and tertiary care hospital. Patients who lived near the hospital tended to be admitted directly to the hospital, and patients who lived far from the hospital tended to utilize the hospital as a tertiary care provider. There were territorial disputes with other secondary care hospitals. To estimate spatial differences in referral to aftercare, we analyzed the spatial distribution of inpatients with focus on their length of hospital stay (LOS). GIS analysis revealed apparent foci of patients with long LOS and those with low LOS.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the function of university hospital in Japan is unspecialized and that the referral route from the university hospital to aftercare is also unequipped.
Toyabe
Shin-ichi
S
Department of Medical Informatics, Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital, Asahimachi-dori 1-754, Niigata 951-8520, Japan. toyabe@med.niigata-u.ac.jp
Kouhei
Akazawa
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000359:Aftercare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors