Retrospective Analysis of Intra-Departmental Requests for Consultation To Hematology Department

Abstract

Aim: To investigate how much information a specialist hematologist receives at the time of initial assessment of referred patients through a referral letter. Study design: Retrospective study Place and duration of study: Haematology department BVH, October 2020 to February 2021 (5 months) Methods & Results: Among the 96 referral letters received, Majority 45 (47%) was referred from medicine department. Most common reason for referring the patient was evaluation of Pancytopenia n=19 (19.8%), Request for bone marrow biopsy n=14 (14.6%), being the second most common. The reason for referral was not properly stated in n=9 (9.4%) of patients in our study. Majority of referred patients were above 46 years of age n=22 (22.9%). CBC was mentioned only in n=35 (36.5%). Conclusion: Our study concludes that quality of referral letter was well below the acceptable standards. A well-documented protocol for referral letter is the need of hour to improve the quality of a referral process. Keywords: referral letter, pancytopenia, bone marrow, hematology clinics