The success rate of making medical appointments using a recently launched online patient referral system is only 47 percent, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare launched the system on March 1. Under the system, patients referred by clinics or regional hospitals are given priority when making appointments at higher-level medical facilities.
As of Tuesday evening, 517 healthcare facilities used the system to refer 1,095 patients, NHIA Medical Affairs Division head Parng I-ming (龐一鳴) said, adding that among them 510 patients, or 47 percent, have successfully made appointments at a higher-level medical facility.
Several factors affected the success rate, such as insufficient patient data leading to hospitals failing to contact the patients, he said.
“We cannot exclude the possibility of some patients insisting on seeing particular doctors,” NHIA Deputy Director-General Tsai Shu-ling (蔡淑鈴) said.
She said that an analysis of the success rates of appointments made on the day of referral showed that Taichung Veterans General Hospital had the highest rate at 82 percent, followed by Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital at 60 percent each, and Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at 58 percent.
“Referrals are valid for 90 days,” Parng said, adding that as the system has only been in use for a little more than two weeks, the current success rate does not reflect the overall success rate.
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