Search results for "Gate-keeping"
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Predictors of emergency department referral in patients using out-of-hours primary care services
2016
Background Out of hours (OOH) doctors could manage many cases limiting the inappropriate accesses to ED. However the possible determinants of referral to ED by OOH doctors are poorly studied. We aimed to characterize patients referred from the OOH to ED service in order to explore the gate-keeping role of OOH service for hospital emergency care and to facilitate future research in improving its cost-effectiveness. Methods A retrospective study was made through data collection of 5217 contacts in a local OOH service in the North-East of Italy (from 10/01/2012 to 03/31/2013). Results Only 8.7% (=454 people) of the total contacts were referred to ED. In the multivariate analysis, the significa…