Why, you say, do you need to SEE your doctor for a referral? It's so stupid!
Multiple reasons:
1. Triage.
2. Scarce resources.
3. Your primary care may be able to handle it.
4. The specialist only wants to see people that they can help.
5. You may think that you and Dr. Google have it figured out, but Dr. Google sucks.
6. For physical and occupational therapy, it has to do with caution and malpractice insurance.
Let's go through them backwards.
6. People call for a referral to physical therapy. I say I need to see them. No, I can't make a diagnosis through the phone. Arm hurts is rather vague. The person says their insurance does not need a referral. But then the physical therapist wants one: why? Well, my malpractice outranks the physical therapists, so to speak. If the therapist sees you without your doctor examining you and something happens... yes, things have happened.
5. Dr. Google. You've read extensively and you know exactly what is going on and you just need the referral. No, you have not gone to medical school or residency. Every quack who can say anything even faintly convincing now has a website. Dr. Google sucks.
4. The gastroenterologist does not want to see your bladder problem. The neurosurgeons hate seeing the people that will not benefit from back surgery, but they have to because the back pain patient doesn't believe me, so the patient has to hear it from the surgeon. The patient thinks I am "gate keeping" them from the specialist. I'm not.
3. Primary care learns to handle a lot of things. One frequent referral is a postnasal drip, to the Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I recommend trying an acid blocker first. The person doesn't believe me. "I don't have heartburn." I sigh, and do the referral. $450.00 later, the ENT has put the scope through their nose and put them on an acid blocker.
2. Scarce resources: We had 8 neurologists on the Olympic Peninsula for about 450,000 people. We are down to two. I called one for a complex stroke-that-wasn't and had to do a series of MRI/MRA studies looking for specific things. It was a vertebral arterial bleed. Rare. I called the neurologist back and he said, "Send them to the other one. I am swamped." He is in the larger population area and two others quit. The rule is sickest is seen first...*
1. Triage. What is wrong, what are we worrying about and how sick is this person? If they are really sick I will call the specialist to ask for recommendations, or which test to do, or see if they need to be seen within a short time. I am not going to interrupt the specialist unless I think it's really necessary! That would burn through my carefully built credit with them! I had a man come in for a new patient visit for a lung problem. I called the specialist and he was seen within a week. Cardiac catheterization and 4 vessel heart bypass for his "lung" problem. The patient gave a textbook heart history which made me call the cardiologist.
*except in a multi trauma scenario where the resources are limited and a triage person has to pick who may make it and who clearly won't.
Also not for BQ