Role of referral doctors in enhancement of referral arrival rate of pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Objective To investigate the role of referral doctors in enhancement of referral arrival rate of pulmonary tuber culosis patients.Methods Two counties with low referral arrival rate of tuberculosis cases were selected as the intervention county and the control county.Health education was implemented in intervention county with tuberculosis patients required re ferral,while the control county maintained the original operating mode,and then 150 tuberculosis cases reported by medical in stitutions in the two counties were investigated by questionnaire survey.Results The referral arrival rate of tuberculosis pa tients in intervention county increased from 23.8% to 66.7%,significantly higher than that before intervention(χ2 = 83.7,P 0.05) and also significantly higher than in control county(41.3%,χ2 = 19.38,P0.05).Besides,81.3% of patients in interven tion county obtained the TB control knowledge from health education by referral doctors before referral,significantly higher than that of control county(χ2 = 53.7).The cause of tuberculosis cases failed to referral was due to unfamiliar of TB control insti tutions accounted for 46.9%(intervention county) and 51.3%(control county),and the cause of other tuberculosis cases failed to referral was due to unclear explanation by the referral doctors accounted for 40.8% and 30.6% in the intervention county and control county,respectively.Conclusions Health education given by referral doctors before referral is one of the important measures for enhancing the referral arrival rate of tuberculosis patients.Thus the effort of upgrading the health education level of referral doctors is indicated.