Reasons for encounter by different levels of urgency in out-of-hours emergency primary health care in Norway: a cross sectional study

BMC Emergency Medicine

Research Article

Steinar Hunskaar¹  Guttorm Raknes² 

[1] National Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care, Uni Research Health, Kalfarveien 31, 5018, Bergen, Norway;Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Box 7800, 5020, Bergen, Norway;National Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care, Uni Research Health, Kalfarveien 31, 5018, Bergen, Norway;Regional Medicines and Information and Pharmacovigilance Centre (RELIS), University Hospital of North Norway, Box 79, 9038, Tromsø, Norway;

关键词: After-hours care;    Classification;    Emergency medical services;    Health services;    Needs and demand;    International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC);    Norway;    Primary health care;    Reason for encounter;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12873-017-0129-2

 received in 2016-11-29, accepted in 2017-06-09,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFrequencies of reasons for encounter (RFEs) in emergency primary care out-of-hours (OOH) services are relevant for planning of capacities as well as to target the training of staff at casualty clinics. We aimed to present frequencies of RFEs in the different organ systems, and to identify the most frequent RFEs at different urgency levels.MethodsWe analyzed data on RFEs in Norwegian OOH services. International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2) RFE codes were recorded in all contacts to eight representative OOH casualty clinics in 2014 and 2015 covering 20 municipalities with a total population of 260 196. Frequencies of each ICPC-2 chapters and groups of ICPC-2 codes were calculated at different urgency levels.ResultsMusculoskeletal, respiratory, skin, digestive and general and unspecified issues were the most frequent RFE groups. Fever was the most frequent single ICPC-2 RFE code, but was less common among the most urgent cases. Abdominal pain was the most common RFE in patients with yellow urgency level (urgent), and chest pain dominated the potentially red (potentially life threatening) cases. There was less variation in the use of ICPC-2 with increasing urgency level.ConclusionsThis study identifies important differences in RFEs between urgency levels in the Norwegian OOH services. The findings provide new insight into the function of the primary health care emergency services in the Norwegian health care system, and should have implications for staffing, training and equipment in the OOH services.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017