Treatment of ambulant patients by a general practitioner within a university hospital's emergency department - follow-up study of patients' behaviour shortly afterwards.

Abstract

Aims: Hospital emergency departments (ED) face an increasing number of outpatient cases. Therefore, Hannover Medical School employs general practitioners for the treatment of walk-in patients within the ED. Up to now, little has been reported on how these patients behave after treatment in the ED. This study aims to assess these patients' behaviour after attending the ED, to find out how many patients consult a physician subsequently, and to explore patients' utilisation of health care in case of similar health problems. Methods: For this follow-up study, patients treated at Hannover Medical School's ED during daytime (Monday - Friday) by a general practitioner (GP) within a period of six weeks in 2016 were subsequently followed up by phone interviews 10-15 days after their consultation. Main topics in the semi-structured interview guide were patients' behaviour after leaving the ED, subsequent contacts with medical care, and how patients would behave in the future given similar symptoms. Data were transferred to a SPSS database, and descriptive data analyses were performed. Results: In total, 171 patients were screened for inclusion, and 91 participated in the study. About half (n=48; 53%) of them were male, and the mean age was 46.6 years. After visiting the GP in the ED, 62 patients (68%) went directly home. Another 14 (15%) took up regular activities (e.g. work, university), while eight patients visited their usual GP practice. Within 10-15 days, 52 patients (57%) had had an appointment with a physician. In most cases this was a GP (n=34; 37%); 12 patients visited a specialist and six patients visited both a GP and a specialist. Physician appointments took place within an average of 3.4 days after treatment in the ED. In case of similar complaints, 37 patients (41%) would visit the ED again rather than visiting the GP, whereas 36% would consult the GP first, and 11% would visit a specialist first. Conclusion: A noteworthy number of patients considered visiting the ED again with similar symptoms instead of visiting a GP in ambulatory care. Consequently our findings suggest that the ED itself plays a minor role in navigating patients' utilisation of medical treatment.