Introduction: Cutting back on the staff and equipment and also reduction of costs and devices, balanced distribution of resources for optimal use and prevention of unreasonable costs for patients are some advantages of the fulfillment of referral system process. Accordingly the purpose of the present study is to determine factors affecting the fulfillment of referral system process from the viewpoints of clients of Isfahans public hospitals so that health system could benefit its advantages. Methodology: The research is a descriptive-analytic survey and the population consisted of clients referring to public hospitals of Isfahan Province. Hospitals conforming to health network in cities of Falavarjan, ShahinShahr, Shahreza, Naein and some public hospitals of Isfahan city were selected for study. Cluster sampling was applied and at the end 400 subjects were selected by simple random sampling. Findings: Results showed that awareness and satisfaction in urban communities and motivation in rural are of higher levels. Regarding insurance status, those covered by Social Security have the most referrals to all levels and those covered by Health Service Insurance have more referral to the first level. The mean score of awareness of clients about referral system among the hospitals investigated shows a significant difference (p-value≤0.05). Conclusion: Results indicate that from the viewpoints of urban clients, the rate of the awareness of and satisfaction with the way of offering health services at primary levels and from that of rural clients motivation affect the fulfillment of referral system process. Therefore improvement of these factors could make the system more efficient.
Key words: referral system, awareness, motivation, satisfaction, teaching hospital.
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