Journal article
Surgical referral coordination from a first-level hospital: A prospective case study from rural Nepal
M Fleming, C King, S Rajeev, A Baruwal, D Schwarz, R Schwarz, N Khadka, S Pande, S Khanal, B Acharya, A Benton, SO Rogers, M Panizales, D Gyorki, H McGee, D Shaye, D Maru
BMC Health Services Research | BIOMED CENTRAL LTD | Published : 2017
Open access
Abstract
Background: Patients in isolated rural communities typically lack access to surgical care. It is not feasible for most rural first-level hospitals to provide a full suite of surgical specialty services. Comprehensive surgical care thus depends on referral systems. There is minimal literature, however, on the functioning of such systems. Methods: We undertook a prospective case study of the referral and care coordination process for cardiac, orthopedic, plastic, gynecologic, and general surgical conditions at a district hospital in rural Nepal from 2012 to 2014. We assessed the referral process using the World Health Organization's Health Systems Framework. Results: We followed the initial 29..
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Funding Acknowledgements
Funding for patient care was sponsored through an independent external funding mechanism, Watsi (www.watsi.org). This mechanism funded the program for surgical access by directly funding patient profiles on their website. No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript, and none of the authors received compensation or funding from this source.