Table 4.

Adjusted Relative Risk of Reasons for Referral Cited by Specialty of Respondent

	Adjusted relative risk (95% CI)*
Reasons for referral	Medical specialists vs. PCP	Surgical specialists vs. PCP	Surgical specialists vs. medical specialists
Patient experience with physician	1.10 (0.99–1.24)	1.08 (0.96–1.23)	0.98 (0.87–1.11)
My patients have good experiences with this physician	1.06 (0.87–1.25)	0.97 (0.78–1.18)	0.92 (0.74–1.15)
Physician has good patient rapport	1.97 (1.21–2.94)	2.11 (1.37–3.08)	1.10 (0.71–1.68)
Physician communication	0.69 (0.49–0.91)	0.83 (0.62–1.05)	1.21 (0.84–1.75)
Works in my hospital or practice	0.67 (0.37–1.08)	1.29 (0.78–2.03)	2.04 (1.09–3.54)
Quality of communication with me	0.70 (0.38–1.12)	0.63 (0.33–1.06)	0.95 (0.44–1.83)
Shares my medical record system	0.57 (0.25–1.11)	0.13 (0.03–0.40)	0.26 (0.05–0.78)
Physician refers to me		N/D†
Patient access	0.79 (0.51–1.12)	0.65 (0.40–0.98)	0.85 (0.48–1.42)
Location convenient for patient	1.40 (0.76–2.39)	1.05 (0.50–1.88)	0.77 (0.38–1.4)
Timely availability of appointments	0.52 (0.21–1.04)	0.38 (0.12–0.91)	0.88 (0.19–2.65)
Patient request	0.55 (0.10–1.85)	0.20 (0.01–0.98)	0.47 (0.03–2.4)
Speaks patient's language		N/D†
Other	3.26 (1.36–6.34)	2.10 (0.74–4.64)	0.69 (0.25–1.48)

Bold values indicate adjusted relative risks for which the null hypothesis of relative risk of 1.0 is rejected at the 0.05 level of significance

CI = confidence interval, PCP = primary care physician

*Relative risks were calculated from a multivariable logistic regression model with the outcome of citing each individual reason as the most important factor for referral and respondent specialty as the main predictor variable. Each relative risk was adjusted for respondent sex, age, race, number of clinical days worked per week, practice size, and hospital affiliation

†Due to the small sample size of respondents choosing these categories, the GEE for the logistic models may not have well-defined solutions, and so estimates are not available