Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
This paper
focuses on addressing the crisis advanced by patient’s self-referrals through a
proposed decongesting framework. Observably, a referral framework enables
control of client health demands that cannot be met locally. It is a common
occurrence that patients walking into referral hospitals increases thus
resulting in the overuse of available services and a deterioration of the
facility’s standard of care. In this work, a descriptive research design was
adopted where self-referral patients who visit the outpatient department at
Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital were interviewed. Purposive random
sampling was used to pick interviewee from the facility. Respondents were
provided with questionnaires to answer, and the data was analyzed quantitatively
using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Quantitative data
were presented in the form of tables and pie charts, quantitative methods
(descriptive and inferential analysis) such as frequencies and percentages were
used. The resulting framework is expected to aid in the decongestion of patient
self-referrals. The findings established a significant positive relationship
(r=.7438) between Socio-Demographic Factors and hospital decongestion in the
referral hospitals. The study highlighted a positive relationship (r=.703)
between primary health facility characteristics and hospital decongestion. The
study established a positive relationship between Referral Facility
Characteristics (r=.431) and hospital decongestion. The study established a
positive relationship between Referral Facility Characteristics (r=.431) and
Decongestion Framework. The study findings highlighted that a unit increase of
0.01 by Referral Facility Characteristics could increase hospital decongestion
of referral hospitals. The study findings also revealed that the administrative
factors also influenced the level of referral hospital congestion. The study
recommends the need to strengthen the referral mechanism and linkages between
the various levels of the facility by having a healthcare provider coordinate
referral processes through the provision of healthcare services in remote areas
via mobile clinics. Increase collaboration between all levels of care and
introduce the use of technology in communication, such as the use of EHR and
mobile phones for receiving feedback and sending referrals to enhance proper
communication within the health care system. The public and the healthcare
providers are to be updated on the referral guidelines.
Country : Kenya
IRJIET, Volume 8, Issue 4, April 2024 pp. 14-33