Are there treatment variations in triage outcomes across out-of-hours co-ops?

Author: Lordan, Grace

Source: Quality in Primary Care, Volume 17, Number 5, October 2009 , pp. 335-341(7)

Publisher: Radcliffe Publishing Ltd.

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Abstract:

Background: This study considers the factors that affect service provision for individuals who present to out-of-hours (OOH) primary care services in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The organisations under consideration are known as OOH co-ops. Specifically, an individual can potentially receive one of four services: nurse advice, doctor advice, a treatment centre consultation or a home visit.

Aim: The principal aim was to investigate whether service provision was consistent across co-ops once patient characteristics, patient complaints and other covariates were controlled for. In this paper, service provision was seen as a necessary but not sufficient condition for quality.

Methods: A multinomial logit approach was used to model the choice between the three services offered by co-ops.

Results: The results indicate that service provision was relatively homogenous across co-ops.

Conclusions: Quality was consistent across co-ops in terms of service provision. Therefore the next step is to consider whether quality within the treatment received varies. Nevertheless, the result provides some support for using OOH co-ops as a means to provide OOH primary care.

Keywords: CONSISTENT CARE; CO-OPS; OUT OF HOURS; PRIMARY CARE

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: School of Economics, Colin Clark Building, University of Queensland, Saint Lucia Campus, QLD 4072, Australia. g.lordan@uq.edu.au

Publication date: 2009-10-01

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