I was glad to see that I’m not the only one obsessed with the frequency with which specialists
recall patients for review. A recent US study in the
Annals of Family Medicine looked at over a billion (!) specialist visits and concluded “The results of our study suggest now that not all activity performed by specialists when in a specialist role may require specialized care.” The study found a high percentage of internal demand/patient recall among US specialists.
Our recall numbers caused a little consternation in December. We’re still not sure what was going on in our clinic to give a spike in recall rates. But, we’re happy to see that they’re back down in early 2009.
There’s still a marked variation in recall rates among our group, so I think there’s still a lot of juice to be wrung out of aligning practices in this area. As our recall rates drop, we’ll open up more capacity to see new referrals.
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