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Thresholds for requesting transfers to tertiary care were influenced by perceptions of the current illness and differences in perceptions of the initial hospital and tertiary care centre

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Q Why do patients or their surrogates request transfers to tertiary care?

DESIGN

Qualitative interview study with ethnographic decision modelling.

SETTING

A large regional tertiary care centre in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

PARTICIPANTS

Purposeful sample of 32 patients 37–92 years of age (mean age 64 y, 53% women, 87% white) (or their surrogate decision makers) who were transferred to tertiary care. Exclusion criteria were patients transferred as part of a regionalised care system, including psychiatry, trauma, and neonatal intensive care patients; and patients transferred for insurance purposes.

METHODS

Semistructured interviews were conducted during the patients’ hospital stay at the accepting hospital within 2 weeks of transfer. Questions addressed patients’ roles in decision making, perceptions of the decision making process, reasons for transfer, and factors influencing the decision. Data collection and analysis used …

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Footnotes

  • For correspondence: Dr S M Dy, Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. sdy{at}jhsph.edu

  • Source of funding: not stated.