Sara Willems|Wim Peersman|Philippe De Maeyer|Walter Buylaert|Jan De Maeseneer|Peter De Paepe
The impact of neighborhood deprivation on patients’ unscheduled out-of-hours healthcare seeking behavior: a cross-sectional study
Ghent University|Ghent University|Ghent University|Ghent University|Ghent University|Ghent University
use unscheduled hours medical care related social status patient however social variance patients preference hospital based versus primary care based facility impact specific patient characteristics travel distance types facilities unclear study aims determine social gradient emergency care seeking behavior consulting emergency department ed hospital communitybased primary care center pcc taking account patient characteristics including geographical distance patients home servicesa crosssectional study including 7723 patients seeking outofhours care 16 weekends 2 public holidays set eds pccs ghent belgium information consulted type service neighborhood deprivation level collected also exact geographical distance patients home types services patient regular gppatients living socially deprived area higher propensity choose hospitalbased ed counterparts living affluent neighborhoods social difference persists taking account distance services regular gp hospitalized impact distance patients home address location types services patients choice service rather smallinitiatives aiming lead patients pcc penalizing inappropriate ed use might increase health inequity twinned interventions improving access primary care services tackling underlying mechanisms patients emergency care seeking behavior research exploring impact outofhours care organization gatekeeping payment systems patients perspectives outofhours care services needed