Primary Care Provider Utilization: A Descriptive Analysis of Family Practice Referral Rates Before and After the Family Practice Service Reorganization at Reynolds Army Community Hospital, Fort Sill, OK

The Department of Defense DoD has directed the services medical departments to operate under managed care precepts. These precepts have brought an increased emphasis on primary care and the primary care providers. This retrospective study examined the referrals initiated by the family practice physicians of a 116-bed Army medical treatment facility MTF. This study examined whether after the family practice service reorganization there were any efficiencies in FP provider utilization base on a decline in referral rates. This study also performed a descriptive analysis of the actual referrals generated and their independent variables in both the pre and post-reorganization data. The results demonstrate that family practice physician utilization increased based on a 22.6 percent increase in patient visits and a 31.1 percent decrease in referrals.