To investigate how cancer patients in Norway use primary care out-of-hours (OOH) services and describe different contact types and procedures.
A retrospective cross-sectional registry study using a billing registry data source.
Norwegian primary care OOH services in 2014.
All patients' contacts in OOH services in 2014. Cancer patients were identified by ICPC-2 diagnosis.
Frequency of cancer patients' contacts with OOH services, contact types, diagnoses, procedures, and socio-demographic characteristics.
In total, 5752 cancer patients had 20,220 contacts (1% of all) in OOH services. Half of the contacts were cancer related. Cancer in the digestive (22.9%) and respiratory (18.0%) systems were most frequent; and infection/fever (21.8%) and pain (13.6%) most frequent additional diagnoses. A total of 4170 patients had at least one cancer-related direct contact; of these, 64.5% had only one contact during the year. Cancer patients had more home visits and more physicians' contact with municipal nursing services than other patients, but fewer consultations (p?
Notes
Cites: Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Dec;63(617):e813-2024351497
Cites: Br J Gen Pract. 2009 Jan;59(558):e16-2419105912