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Introduction Patient referrals to tertiary level of care neurological services are often potentially avoidable and result in inferior clinical outcomes. To decrease transfer burden, stakeholders should acquire a comprehensive perception of specialty referral process dynamics. We identified associations between patient sociodemographic data, disease category and hospital characteristics and avoidable transfers, and differentiated factors underscoring informed decision making as essential care management aspects. Materials and methods We completed a retrospective observational study. The inclusion criteria were pediatric and adult patients with neurological diagnosis referred to our tertiary care hospital. The primary outcome was potentially avoidable transfers, which included patients discharged after 24 hours from admission without requiring neurosurgery, neuro-intervention, or specialized diagnostic methodologies and consult in non-neurologic specialties during their hospital stay. Variables included demographics, disease category, health insurance and referring hospital characteristics. Results Patient referrals resulted in 1615 potentially avoidable transfers. A direct correlation between increasing referral trends and unwarranted transfers was observed for dementia, spondylosis and trauma conversely, migraine, neuro-ophthalmic disease and seizure disorders showed an increase in unwarranted transfers with decreasing referral trends. The age group over 90 years (OR, 3.71), seizure disorders (OR, 4.16), migraine (OR, 12.50) and neuro-ophthalmic disease (OR, 25.31) significantly associated with higher probability of avoidable transfers. Disparities between pediatric and adult transfer cases were identified for discrete diagnoses. Hospital teaching status but not hospital size showed significant associations with potentially avoidable transfers. Conclusions Neurological dysfunctions with overlapping clinical symptomatology in ageing patients have higher probability of unwarranted transfers. In pediatric patients, disease categories with complex symptomatology requiring sophisticated workup show greater likelihood of unwarranted transfers. Future transfer avoidance recommendations include implementation of measures that assist astute disorder assessment at the referring hospital such as specialized diagnostic modalities and teleconsultation. Additional moderators include after-hours specialty expertise provision and advanced directives education.

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