The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said the success rate of patient referral through the newly launched online patient referral system has increased to 67 percent, with Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH) having accepted the most patients among medical centers in Taipei and New Taipei City.
Introduced earlier this month, the system is designed to improve the nation’s hospital hierarchical classification system. At the time of the its implementation, the nation’s patient referral success rate was 47 percent.
NHIA Northern Division section chief Lin Li-gin (林麗瑾) said that as of Tuesday, 1,145 out of 1,720 cases were successfully referred using the system, a success rate of about 67 percent.
She said the success rate in Taipei and New Taipei City was even higher, at about 75 percent, attributed to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City, which accepted 36 people, National Taiwan University Hospital, which accepted 20 people, and Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital, which each accepted 17 people.
National Taiwan University Hospital, commonly perceived to be the leading medical center in Taiwan, has a 100 percent referral success rate, Lin said, but analysis showed that the referrals were mainly associated with locality and convenience for patients, as the majority of cases referred to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital live in New Taipei City.
Clinics can send digital medical record abstracts and referral notes to hospitals so doctors can treat a patient and then refer them back to a clinic for long-term care, the NHIA said.
Communication between heathcare facilities can stop patients from having to making appointments at hospitals and lower the risk of infection while waiting at hospitals, because referral patients are given higher priority, it said.
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