Table 3 Referring physician’s comments on the consultation requesting process, timeliness, utility, and satisfaction of information received from consultations
Survey question | All consultations number/respondents (%) | VC number/respondents (%) 71 total responses possible | TC number/respondents (%) 58 total responsespossible | P -value for VC vs. TC | number of missing or cannot recall responses (n = 128 maximum) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Referring physician called department before making consultation? | 9/127 (7.1%) | 4/70 (5.7%) | 5/57 (8.8%) | 0.52 | 1 |
Process of making consultation majorly or fairly disruptive to workflow? | 3/123 (2.4%) | 2/67 (3.0%) | 1/56 (1.8%) | 0.67 | 5 |
Referring physician solicited patient preference for type of consultation. | 41/123 (33.3%) | 18/68 (26.5%) | 23/55 (41.2%) | 0.15 | 5 |
Patients who expressed a preference for consultation type. | 25/111 (22.5%) | 16/60 (26.7) | 9/51 (17.6) | 0.38 | 17 |
Information received from consultant by the time referring physician completed the survey (2–3 weeks after consultation request) | 68/124 (54.8%) | 49/68 (72.1%) | 19/56 (33.9%) | <0.001 | 4 |
Of referring physicians (n = 68) who received consultant information at the time of the survey, usefulness with information from consultation | |||||
Useful (8–10 on 10 point Likert scale) | 25/33 (75.6%) | 17/21 (81.0%) | 8/12 (66.7%)= | 0.66 | 35 |
Somewhat useful (6–7 on 10 point Likert scale) | 4/33 (12.1%) | 2/21 (9.5%) | 2/12 (16.7%) | ||
Not useful (1–5 on 10 point Likert scale) | 4/33 (12.1%) | 2/21 (9.5%) | 2/12 (16.7%) | ||
Of referring physicians (n = 68) who received consultant information at the time of the survey, satisfaction with information from consultation | |||||
Satisfied (8–10 on 10 point Likert scale) | 26/36 (72.2%) | 18/24 (75.0%) | 8/12 (66.7%) | 0.40 | 32 |
Somewhat satisfied (6–7 on 10 point Likert scale) | 5/36 (13.9%) | 2/24 (8.3%) | 3/12 (25.0%) | ||
Not satisfied (1–5 on 10 point Likert scale) | 5/36 (13.9%) | 4/24 (16.7%) | 1/12 (8.3%) | ||