Study objective: To identify physician referral patterns and factors involved in the patient referral process.
Design: A telephone survey conducted on a systematic sample of physicians who referred at least one patient a month to a tertiary care center.
Setting: A major southeastern tertiary care academic medical center.
Type of participants: Self-identified emergency physicians, family physicians, general surgeons, internists, obstetrician-gynecologists, and pediatricians.
Interventions: None.
Measurements and main results: Emergency physicians comprised 6% of the surveyed sample. Emergency physicians referred the largest number of patients each month to a tertiary care center (40 patients per month) compared with the other target specialists, who referred an average of 16 patients per month (P < .05). Specialty services most often requested by emergency physicians were internal medicine, trauma, and cardiology.
Conclusion: Emergency physicians refer more patients to academic medical centers than any other specialty. Academic medical centers should target emergency physicians if they wish to increase their patient referral base.