Characterization of not regulated medical transfers from different health care institutions to Pablo Tobon Uribe Hospital Medellin in 2017

Objectives: Unregulated transfers are those in which patients are reassigned to more complex healthcare providers (IPS) in search of a resource that is not available. The service is usually required with urgency due to administrative or patient reasons, thus omitting the regular remission procedure. The main objective is to establish the reason why non-regulated transfers are made to an institution of high complexity. Likewise, we seek to describe the clinical characteristics of these patients, the type of transfer, administrative aspects, the patients’ final disposition, and the resources used. Methodology: A descriptive observational study was conducted, where the databases of the patients admitted in 2017 as unregulated transfers to a high complexity hospital in the city of Medellin were reviewed. Results: The main reason for transfer to institutions of high complexity is the patient’s life risk in 49% followed by the lack of resources in 42%, where the medical expert was the main resource used (34%). Patients with a medical diagnosis are the most frequent cause of transfer. Most unregulated transfers come from low and medium complexity (96%). Regarding the final disposition of the patients, 63% are discharged and 13% die in the institution. Conclusions: There are no current literature or objective studies of unregulated transfers that show us precise data and reasons why these take place. It is frequently assumed that they occur due to administrative procedures, but it is the patient’s life risk that leads the medical personnel to move in search of a more complex resource.