Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Departments of Health Policy, Evaluation and Management, Family and Community Medicine, and Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Ontario. ben@ices.on.ca
Frequent users of EDs, defined as people with at least 12 ED physician assessments yearly, were compared with those with one to 11 assessments yearly.
Number of general practitioner and family physician (GP/FP) office visits and number of GP/FPs visited; diagnoses made during office visits; referrals by GP/FPs to specialists.
Three quarters of frequent users of EDs visited GP/FPs at least six times yearly, and more than half visited at least 12 times yearly. Although frequent users of EDs saw many GP/FPs (4.2 vs 1.6 in the control group, P