title: Out-of-hours primary care services: demands and patient referral patterns in a Veneto region (Italy) Local Health Authority.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of patients admitted to an out-of-hours (OOH) service and to analyze the related outputs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted by analyzing an electronic database recording 23,980 OOH service contacts in 2011 at a Local Health Authority in the Veneto Region (North-East Italy).
  
  
  METHODS
  A multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the characteristics of contacts handled by the OOH physicians with cases referred to other services.
  
  
  RESULTS
  OOH service contact rates were higher for the oldest and youngest age groups and for females rather than males. More than half of the contacts concerned patients who were seen by a OOH physician. More than one in three contacts related problems managed over the phone; only ≈10% of the patients were referred to other services. Many factors, including demographic variables, process-logistic variables and clinical characteristics of the contact, were associated with the decision to visit the patient's home (rather than provide telephone advice alone), or to refer patients to an ED or to a specialist. Our study demonstrated, even after adjusting, certain OOH physicians were more likely than their colleagues to refer a patient to an ED.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows that OOH services meet composite and variously expressed demands. The determining factors associated with cases referred to other health care services should be considered when designing clinical pathways in order to ensure a continuity of care. The unwarranted variability in OOH physicians' performance needs to be addressed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare, Sezione di Sanità Pubblica, Laboratorio di Sanità Pubblica e Studi di Popolazione, Università di Padova, Italy. Electronic address: alessandra.buja@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buja
authors.affiliation: Direzione Sanitaria, Azienda ULSS 4, Regione Veneto, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toffanin
authors.affiliation: Direzione Sanitaria, Azienda ULSS 4, Regione Veneto, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rigon
authors.affiliation: Scuola di Specializzazione in Igiene e Medicina Preventiva, Università di Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sandonà
authors.affiliation: Direzione Sanitaria, Azienda ULSS 4, Regione Veneto, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carraro
authors.affiliation: Facoltà di Medicina, Departmemt of Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Damiani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare, Sezione di Sanità Pubblica, Laboratorio di Sanità Pubblica e Studi di Popolazione, Università di Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Baldo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D039602:After-Hours Care; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: After-hours care; Delivery of health care; Health service needs and demands; Primary health care; Referral and consultation