Analysis of geographical distribution of referrals to psychiatry from primary care

Abstract

IntroductionThe distribution of the demand from primary care in the mental health units could be a way of facilitating the coordination and improving the attention to patients. For this reason, in our unit we have made a repartition of the areas among the different psychiatrists.ObjectivesTo analyze if there was a correlation between the geographical origin of the patients or their primary care areas and the referrals, and between them and their attendance.MethodsThis is an epidemiological, analytic, prospective study of patients referred to our department. The following variables were collected: (1) referral protocol, (2) reason, (3) demographic data (origin, gender, age), (4) Primary Care area, (5) attendance to appointment, (6) diagnosis impression and (7) destination of referral. The SPSS 19.0 was used to analyze the data.ResultsA total of 1048 patients were sampled. A statistically significant relationship hasn’t been found between place of residence, primary care area or areas of distribution in the Unit and attendance (Chi2). If we analyze the population of each distribution, we can describe similar percentages depending on the size of these.ConclusionsAlthough a different distribution and a relationship is thought between some areas and the attendance or the number of referrals, we didn’t find out them in our sample.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Análisis de la demanda de una consulta de Salud Mental coordinada con Atención Primaria

“…Por último, observamos que el tipo de derivación o la existencia de antecedentes de seguimiento en Psiquiatría se relacionan con el acudir o no a la cita, sin obtener una relación estadísticamente significativa en variables como el sexo, la población de origen o el Centro de Salud que realiza la derivación. Estos resultados son similares a los ya obtenidos en estudios previos (Mata et al, 2017b;Mata et al, 2017d).…”

“…En análisis posteriores se observaron diferentes aspectos, como que un 20,6% de los pacientes no acudió a la primera consulta (Mata, Nuevo, Asensio, Beato, y Rodríguez, 2017a) o que no se encontraron relaciones significativas entre el lugar de residencia de los pacientes, el centro de salud que realizaba la derivación o las áreas de distribución a las que pertenecían (Mata, Muñoz, Nuevo, López, y Asensio, 2017b).…”