
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Nagree, Yusuf 
A1  - Ercleve, Tor N O 
A1  - Sprivulis, Peter C 
T1  - After-hours general practice clinics are unlikely to reduce low acuity patient attendances to metropolitan Perth emergency departments
JF  - Australian Health Review
JO  - Aust. Health Review
Y1  - 2004
VL  - 28
IS  - 3
SP  - 285
EP  - 291
KW  - 
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/AH040285 
N2  - Objective: To model the effectiveness of afterhours general practice (GP) in reducing metropolitan Perth emergency departments? (ED) low acuity patient (LAP) attendances and costs. Methods: We estimated LAP attendances by comparison of the product of (A) the difference between self-referred and GP-referred ED discharge rates and (B) total self-referred attendances (LAP attendances = A - B). We then compared after-hours ED LAP attendance rates and costs with inner metropolitan 'working-week' ED LAP attendance rates and costs, when GP services are maximally available. Results: Working-week LAP attendances comprised 8.2% (95% CI, 8.0%?8.4%) of inner metropolitan ED attendances. Excess weekend and evening LAP attendances were estimated to comprise 16.5% (95%CI, 15.9%?17.0%) and 4.5% (95%CI, 4.1%?4.9%) of outer and inner metropolitan ED attendances respectively and totalled less than 3.0% of ED costs. Conclusions: Low acuity patients form a relatively constant, inexpensive proportion of ED workloads. After-hours GP LAP services are unlikely to significantly reduce ED attendances or costs. 
ER  -

