Table 1.
Demographic and referrals characteristics based on the primary healthcare service’ distance from a referred hospital between 2019 and 2021 (n = 52,143).
| Demographic and Referrals Characteristics | Total N(%) |
Distance of the Referred Hospital N (%) or m ± SD a | p-Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ≤13 km Zone | >13 km Zone | ||||
| No. of Primary healthcare centres | 9 (100) | 5(55.6) | 4 (44.4) | - | |
| PHC visits to referrals ratio | 16:1 | 14.5:1 | 20.4:1 | - | |
| Number of referrals | 52,143 (100) | 40,060 (76.8) | 12,083 (23.2) | - | |
| Documented scheduled appointment | Yes | 45,697 (87.6) | 35,305 (67.7) | 10,392 (20) | 0.001 * |
| No | 6446 (12.4) | 4755 (9) | 1691 (3.2) | ||
| Referral’s urgency | Urgent | 10,384 (20) | 7237 (14) | 3147 (6) | 0.001 * |
| Non-urgent | 41,759 (80) | 32,823(63) | 8936 (17) | ||
| Patient’s age (years) b | 40.5 ± 18.4 | 41.5 ± 18.4 | 37.3 ± 17.8 | 0.001 * | |
| Gender | Males | 22,869 (44) | 17,553 (33.7) | 5316 (10.2) | 0.728 |
| Females | 29,273 (56) | 22,507 (43.2) | 6767 (13) | ||
a Standard deviation (SD), b t-test used for comparisons, * p < 0.05, deemed significant.