Hospital social workers' use of heuristics and fast-and-frugal decision trees when prioritizing referrals: A qualitative interview study.

Prioritizing referrals is a challenging and common task in hospital social work practice. However, it is not well understood what influences prioritization decisions. We drew on the psychosocial rationality model and fast-and-frugal decision trees to consider how Australian hospital social workers prioritize their referrals. In-depth interviews with 15 hospital social workers were completed. The qualitative analysis identified seven heuristics influencing decision-making: (1) imminent harm, (2) likelihood of death, (3) discharge status, (4) social workers' ability to help the patient, (5) risk factors, (6) protective factors, and (7) time needed to resolve the referral. Heuristics are simple to learn and provide assistance to social workers to enable them to make quick, transparent, and consistent prioritization decisions.