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- Title
Access to episodic primary care: a cross-sectional comparison of walk-in clinics and urgent primary care centers in British Columbia.
- Authors
McCracken, Mary A.; Cooper, Ian R.; Hamilton, Michee-Ana; Klimas, Jan; Lindsay, Cameron; Fletcher, Sarah; Price, Morgan; Hedden, Lindsay; McCracken, Rita K.
- Abstract
Aim: This study aimed to identify publicly reported access characteristics for episodic primary care in BC and provided a clinic-level comparison between walk-in clinics and UPCCs. Background: Walk-in clinics are non-hospital-based primary care facilities that are designed to operate without appointments and provide increased healthcare access with extended hours. Urgent and Primary Care Centres (UPCCs) were introduced to British Columbia (BC) in 2018 as an additional primary care resource that provided urgent, but not emergent care during extended hours. Methods: This cross-sectional study used publicly available data from all walk-in clinics and UPCCs in BC. A structured data collection form was used to record access characteristics from clinic websites, including business hours, weekend availability, attachment to a longitudinal family practice, and provision of virtual services. Findings: In total, 268 clinics were included in the analysis (243 walk-in clinics, 25 UPCCs). Of those, 225 walk-in clinics (92.6%) and two UPCCs (8.0%) were attached to a longitudinal family practice. Only 153 (63%) walk-in clinics offered weekend services, compared to 24 (96%) of UPCCs. Walk-in clinics offered the majority (8,968.6/ 78.4%) of their service hours between 08:00 and 17:00, Monday to Friday. UPCCs offered the majority (889.3/ 53.7%) of their service hours after 17:00. Conclusion: Most walk-in clinics were associated with a longitudinal family practice and provided the majority of clinic services during typical business hours. More research that includes patient characteristics and care outcomes, analyzed at the clinic level, may be useful to support the optimization of episodic primary healthcare delivery.
- Subjects
BRITISH Columbia; ACCESS to primary care; HEALTH services accessibility; CROSS-sectional method; FAMILY medicine; TIME; CLINICS; ACQUISITION of data; PRIMARY health care; MEDICAL referrals; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; MEDICAL records; RESEARCH funding; TELEMEDICINE
- Publication
Primary Health Care Research & Development, 2023, Vol 24, p1
- ISSN
1463-4236
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S1463423623000580