After-hours primary care and non-urgent emergency department use by adult patients from St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador ...

• Main Author: Siromani, Jerome D.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2023
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48336/s7sd-wb40; https://research.library.mun.ca/15896/

Background: Wait times in Canadian Emergency Departments are among the highest in the industrialized world, and avoidable Emergency Department (ED) visits have been associated with greater costs. Primary Objective: Describe the relationship between after-hours care by Family Physicians (FPs) and low-acuity ED visits by adult patients from the St. John’s Metropolitan Area (SJMA), while controlling for non-modifiable patient characteristics. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional observational study utilizing administrative data (2011-2015) was performed. Residents of the SJMA were assigned to their most frequent provider of primary care services according to Fee-For-Service (FFS) billings and patient records from university-affiliated Academic Family Physicians (AFPs). FPs practicing under the FFS model were categorized according to the percentage of their billings that included a supplementary after-hours fee code (i.e., <5%, 5-14.9%, 15-24.9%, and >25%), which served as a proxy for access to ...