Differences among Ophthalmology Patients Referred to Tertiary Medical Centers according to Referral Hospital

Kim, Heesuk; Kim, Hong Kyu; Rim, Tyler Hyungtaek; Kim, Ji Won; Kim, Jin Hyung; Kim, Sung Soo

The outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in the summer of 2015 in Korea offered an opportunity to draw attention to the problems of the national healthcare delivery system. Since then, a large number of studies have explored MERS prevention strategies [9, 10] . Cho [9] proposed that specialization of medical institutions and reinforcement of referral guidelines are essential to ease overcrowding in tertiary hospitals, which was a main cause of the MERS outbreak. Cho's suggestions are consistent with our recommendation that classification by functional capability should be emphasized rather than classification by hospital type (clinic, hospital, and general hospital) where specialists in various medical specialties and general practitioners work together [9] . Easing overcrowding in tertiary hospitals corresponds to the reinforcement of primary care. Primary care reinforcement is one of the key strategies for efficient and equitable healthcare reform. Healthcare reform efforts in the United States also mainly seek to strengthen primary care through a program called the patient-centered medical home model [11, 12] .