Physician home visits in Ontario: a cross-sectional analysis of patient characteristics and postvisit use of health care services.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is unknown how much of current physician home visit volume is driven by low-complexity or low-continuity visits. Our objectives were to measure physician home visit volumes and costs in Ontario from 2005/06 to 2018/19, and to compare patient characteristics and postvisit use of health care services across home visit types.

Methods

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study using health administrative data. We examined annual physician home visit volumes and costs from 2005/06 to 2018/19 in Ontario, and characteristics and postvisit use of health care services of residents who received at least 1 home visit from any physician in 2014/15 to 2018/19. We categorized home visits as palliative, provided to a patient who also received home care services or "other,

SUBMITTER: Lapointe-Shaw L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9377547 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul-Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature