How Do Primary Care Clinicians View Electronic Consults to Specialists?

Electronic consultations (e-consults) to specialty care by primary care clinicians (PCPs) involve an electronic request for a specialty referral that is reviewed by a specialist and can result in a request for more information, guidance on what the PCP can do before a referral, or an acceptance of the referral. In this qualitative study that involved 40 PCPs in a safety-net community health system in Los Angeles that uses a mandatory e-consult system, three themes emerged concerning PCPs' views of this approach.

First, some PCPs were positive about the shorter wait times and thought the guidance given by specialists sometimes obviated the need for referral, whereas others were annoyed by the many questions asked by the specialty reviewers an…