Evaluation of the manageability of patients applying to the cardiology outpatient clinic in primary care

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Family medicine is a place close to a person's residence and is the first place patients should go to for health problems. As a result of not implementing an effective referral chain in our country, the workload of tertiary hospitals is increasing. Our aim is to determine to what extent the diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of patients applying to the cardiology outpatient clinic can be performed by the family physician. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Our research was carried out using data from a survey form consisting of 24 questions applied by face-to-face interview with 458 patients in the waiting area of the cardiology outpatient clinic of Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital between 01/05/2023-30/06/2023. RESULTS: It was found that the primary center to which 49.6% (227) of the patients participating in our research applied for health-related problems was the family health center. 78.8% (361) of the participants in the study applied to the cardiology outpatient clinic without consulting a family physician. According to the evaluations of the cardiologists who examined the patients, 36.7% (168) of the patients could be diagnosed and managed by the primary care physician. Participants who knew that cardiological medications could be prescribed and some tests and examinations could be requested in family medicine were found to have statistically lower manageability in primary care compared to those who did not know (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: We think that the patient density in tertiary care will decrease by performing the first examinations in primary care and actively implementing the referral system. We conclude that these can be achieved by strengthening ASMs technically and equipped, increasing the number of experts in ASMs, and introducing ASMs to the society. Keywords: Family practice, cardiology, referral chain