title: Does setting up out of hours primary care cooperatives outside a hospital reduce demand for emergency care?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the reorganisation of out of hours primary care, from practice rotas to GP cooperatives, changed utilisation of primary and hospital emergency care.
  
  
  METHODS
  During a four week period before and a four week period after the reorganisation of out of hours primary care in a region in the south of the Netherlands all patient contacts with general practitioners and hospital accident and emergency (A&E) departments were analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A 10% increase was found in patient contacts with out of hours primary care, and a 9% decrease in patient contacts with out of hours emergency care. The number of self referrals at the A&E department was reduced by about 4%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The reorganisation of out of hours primary care has led to a shift in patient contacts from emergency care to primary care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Care, Research Institute Caphri, University Hospital Maastricht, Netherlands. caro.vanuden@hag.unimaas.nl <caro.vanuden@hag.unimaas.nl>
authors.forename: C J T
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: van Uden
authors.forename: H F J M
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Crebolder
mesh_terms: D039602:After-Hours Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*