The Relationship between Same-Day Access and Continuity in Primary Care and Emergency Department Visits.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26332981.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0135274 and PMC identifier 4557991.
- Licence recorded as CC0.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
We examined how emergency department (ED) visits for potentially preventable, mental health, and other diagnoses were related to same-day access and provider continuity in primary care using administrative data from 71,296 patients in 22 VHA clinics over a three-year period. ED visits were categorized as non-emergent; primary care treatable; preventable; not preventable; or mental health-related. We conducted multi-level regression models adjusted for patient and clinic factors. More same-day access significantly predicted fewer non-emergent and primary care treatable ED visits while continuity was not significantly related to any type of ED visit. Neither measure was related to ED visits for mental health problems.
Medical subject headings
- Emergency Service, Hospital
- Health Services Accessibility
- Primary Health Care