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A visit to the hospital may be necessary both for treatment and for the necessary diagnostic tests. Regardless of which of these two reasons applies to us, we will need a referral to a hospital on the basis of which we can be admitted. What should a referral to a hospital look like? Who can issue them? What information should it contain? We answer these and other questions about hospital referral in the following article.
When is a hospital referral needed?
As we mentioned at the beginning, a referral to the hospital will be useful primarily in two cases – when we want to perform specific diagnostic tests, and when inpatient treatment is necessary. However, a visit to a specialist doctor does not require a referral to a hospital. To register with a psychiatrist, gynecologist or oncologist, we do not need a special referral to the hospital. The situation is different in the case of an ophthalmologist and a dermatologist. In order to visit these specialists, we must first go to the GP so that he can write us a referral.
Who does not need a certificate to benefit from hospital care?
Not everyone needs special certificates to be able to benefit from tests or specialist hospital care. This obligation is exempted primarily from HIV-infected patients, veterans, tuberculosis patients, war invalids, blind people who have lost their eyesight as a result of hostilities, addicted to alcohol, intoxicants and psychotropic substances, repressed people, as well as people who want access hospital care to become an organ donor.
Who can make a referral to the hospital?
Most often, after a referral to the hospital, we go to the family doctor, but not only he can issue such a certificate. A referral may also be issued by a specialist doctor. Additionally, only a health insurance doctor can refer you to diagnostic tests, which are particularly cost-intensive. The same applies to referral to spa treatment, i.e. referral to a sanatorium.
What information should be included in the hospital referral?
For a referral to hospital to be valid, it should contain specific information. First of all, it cannot be missing the date of issue, as well as a clear stamp with the name, telephone number and address of the service provider, which will also include the number of the contract that was concluded with the health fund. In addition, of course, exact patient data is required. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the referral to the hospital includes the patient’s name, surname and PESEL number. It is also important that the referral contains the basis of the referral, i.e. the disease entity with its established code. The referral must also clearly define the purpose of the referral, and finally there must be the signature and stamp of the doctor issuing the referral. If the patient has previously had any diagnostic tests, these should also be included in the referral to the hospital.
How does a referral to hospital work?
Having already written out a referral to the hospital, you should go to the selected facility that provides this type of service and enter the list of patients waiting for admission. The original of the referral to the hospital should be delivered to the facility within fourteen days of enrolling on the list. Some referrals become invalid only when the health problem the referral relates to ceases or is healed. However, other referrals are issued for a specified period of time. If the patient receives a referral to a rehabilitation clinic, the referral can be made within twelve months. As for a psychiatric hospital, the validity of the referral is only fourteen days.
Hospital referral and refusal of admission
Although the referral to the hospital requires the facility to admit the patient, it sometimes happens that the hospital refuses admission on the basis of a valid referral. If such a situation happens to us, remember that such a refusal should be confirmed by the hospital on the referral. This type of refusal should include: date, facility stamp, address, telephone number, as well as the name, surname and signature of the person refusing admission to the hospital. The refusal must also include the reason for the refusal. It is worth paying attention to whether the refusal contains all of the above information, because only then do we have the right to refer a complaint to a department of the National Health Fund, a hospital or the patient’s ombudsman.