Using Google Trends to track walk-in clinic and emergency department searches over time and across provinces in Canada (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Ssendikaddiwa ◽  
Ruth Lavergne
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
British Columbia ◽  
Emergency Departments ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Care Seeking ◽  
Primary Care Access ◽  
Care Access ◽  
After Hours ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Access to primary care is a challenge for many Canadians. Models of primary care vary widely across provinces, including arrangements for same day and after-hours access. Use of walk-in clinics and emergency departments may also vary, but data sources that allow comparison are limited. OBJECTIVE We use Google Trends to examine searches for walk-in clinics and emergency departments across provinces and over time in Canada, and compare results to other information about primary care access. METHODS We developed search strategies to capture the range of terms used for walk-in clinics (e.g. urgent care clinic, after-hours clinic) and emergency departments (e.g. ER, emergency room) across Canadian provinces. We used Google Trends to determine the frequencies of these terms relative to total search volume, and standardized search frequencies to allow comparisons across provinces and over time (2011-2018). We explored how care seeking captured by Google Trends correlates with other sources of data on primary care access by province. RESULTS Manitoba, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia had highest search frequency for emergency departments, and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario had the lowest. Searches for walk-in clinics were most common in the western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Relative search frequency for walk-in clinics increased steadily, doubling in most provinces between 2011 and 2018. Higher search frequency for walk-in clinics was correlated with ability to get a same or next-day appointment and inversely correlated with both ED use for conditions treatable in patients’ regular place of care and having a regular medical provider. Emergency department searches were not correlated with survey data. CONCLUSIONS Search frequencies may reflect patient care seeking but may also be impacted by news coverage and other events, especially in the case of emergency department searches. We observe substantial interprovincial variation, and marked growth in the frequency of searches for walk-in clinics. Google Searches for walk-in clinics correlate with other measures of access, and appear to correspond to differences in policies related to walk-in clinics, advanced access, and after-hours care between provinces.

Influence of awareness and availability of medical alternatives on parents seeking paediatric emergency care

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia A. Ellbrant ◽  
S. Jonas Åkeson ◽  
Pia M. Karlsland Åkeson
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Emergency Departments ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Care Seeking ◽  
Emergency Department Care ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Paediatric Emergency Department ◽  
Paediatric Emergency

Aims: Direct seeking of care at paediatric emergency departments may result from an inadequate awareness or a short supply of medical alternatives. We therefore evaluated the care-seeking patterns, availability of medical options and initial medical assessments – with overall reference to socioeconomic status – of parents at an urban paediatric emergency department in a Scandinavian country providing free paediatric healthcare. Methods: The parents of children assessed by paediatric emergency department physicians at a Swedish university hospital over a 25-day winter period completed a questionnaire on recent medical contacts and their reasons for attendance. Additional information was obtained from ledgers, patient records and population demographics. Results: In total, 657 of 713 eligible patients (92%) were included. Seventy-nine per cent of their parents either failed to or managed to establish medical contact before the emergency department visit, whereas 21% sought care with no attempt at recent medical contact. Visits with a failed telephone or primary care contact (18%) were more common outside office hours ( p=0.014) and were scored as less urgent ( p=0.014). A perceived emergency was the main reason for no attempt at medical contact before the visit. Direct emergency department care-seeking was more common from the city district with the lowest socioeconomic status ( p=0.027). Conclusions: Although most parents in this Swedish study tried to seek medical advice before attending a paediatric emergency department, perceived emergency, a short supply of telephone health line or primary care facilities and lower socioeconomic status contributed to direct care-seeking by almost 40% of parents. Pre-hospital awareness and the availability of medical alternatives with an emphasis on major differences in socioeconomic status should therefore be considered to further optimize care-seeking in paediatric emergency departments.

scholarly journals Access to Primary Care and Internet Searches for Walk-In Clinics and Emergency Departments in Canada: Observational Study Using Google Trends and Population Health Survey Data

10.2196/13130 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. e13130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Ssendikaddiwa ◽  
Ruth Lavergne
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Health Survey ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Medical Provider ◽  
After Hours ◽  
Access To Primary Care ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Over Time

Background Access to primary care is a challenge for many Canadians. Models of primary care vary widely among provinces, including arrangements for same-day and after-hours access. Use of walk-in clinics and emergency departments (EDs) may also vary, but data sources that allow comparison are limited. Objective We used Google Trends to examine the relative frequency of searches for walk-in clinics and EDs across provinces and over time in Canada. We correlated provincial relative search frequencies from Google Trends with survey responses about primary care access from the Commonwealth Fund’s 2016 International Health Policy Survey of Adults in 11 Countries and the 2016 Canadian Community Health Survey. Methods We developed search strategies to capture the range of terms used for walk-in clinics (eg, urgent care clinic and after-hours clinic) and EDs (eg, emergency room) across Canadian provinces. We used Google Trends to determine the frequencies of these terms relative to total search volume within each province from January 2011 to December 2018. We calculated correlation coefficients and 95% CIs between provincial Google Trends relative search frequencies and survey responses. Results Relative search frequency of walk-in clinic searches increased steadily, doubling in most provinces between 2011 and 2018. Relative frequency of walk-in clinic searches was highest in the western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. At the provincial level, higher walk-in clinic relative search frequency was strongly positively correlated with the percentage of survey respondents who reported being able to get same- or next-day appointments to see a doctor or a nurse and inversely correlated with the percentage of respondents who reported going to ED for a condition that they thought could have been treated by providers at usual place of care. Relative search frequency for walk-in clinics was also inversely correlated with the percentage of respondents who reported having a regular medical provider. ED relative search frequencies were more stable over time, and we did not observe statistically significant correlation with survey data. Conclusions Higher relative search frequency for walk-in clinics was positively correlated with the ability to get a same- or next-day appointment and inversely correlated with ED use for conditions treatable in the patient’s regular place of care and also with having a regular medical provider. Findings suggest that patient use of Web-based tools to search for more convenient or accessible care through walk-in clinics is increasing over time. Further research is needed to validate Google Trends data with administrative information on service use.

Abstract P331: Impact of Primary Care Access and Continuity of Care in Reduction of Hospital/Emergency Department Admissions in Patients With Hypertension: A Systematic Review

Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 141 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya Rajmohan ◽  
Konstantin Golubykh ◽  
Anastasiia Avdeeva ◽  
Ashraf Mahmood ◽  
Muhammad Sarmad Aleem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Primary Care ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Ambulatory Care ◽  
Continuity Of Care ◽  
Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions ◽  
Primary Care Access ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Ed Visits ◽  
Access To Primary Care

Background: Hypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic pressure ≥90 mmHg, is one of the most common chronic diseases (prevalence is 29.0% among adults) and is part of the Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC). In most cases, hypertension is considered a secondary diagnosis because complications that could result from the disease are the reasons why patients with hypertension are admitted to the hospital and Emergency Department (ED). Thereby, preventive approaches are integral in the management of these complications and access to primary care along with continuity are considered to be crucial components of preventive medicine. Hypothesis: We assess the hypothesis that increased access to primary care and continuity of care can reduce ED visits along with hospitalization rates in patients with hypertension. Methods: We reviewed articles from years 2005 to 2019 from peer reviewed journals. All publications were written in English and were mostly from the United States. However, we also included studies from other countries for comparison. We identified 2115 articles in total: 784 from Science Direct, 687 from Pubmed and 644 from Google Scholar, using these keywords: Hypertension, Hospitalization, Emergency Department, Primary care, Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions. Based on the titles, we investigated abstracts of 198 potentially relevant articles. Abstracts were rated independently by each member of the pair of reviewers and scored for relevance (relevant/ non-relevant). The second step was to have the full text of the remaining studies (n = 146) reviewed by the same team to check whether papers met inclusion criteria. Through this process, 96 studies were excluded. A total of 50 studies remained and were included in our systematic review. Results: From 50 research articles that were included; 38 studies showed statistically significant (p < 0.05) finding that increased access to primary care and its continuity decreases hospitalizations and/or ED admissions in patients with hypertension, 8 studies did not find statistically significant association between these factors. 4 studies showed statistically significant conclusion that general or family physicians as PCPs decrease hospitalization and ED admission rate in comparison with specialist physicians as PCP. Conclusion: We concluded that increased primary care access and its continuity are associated with a statistically significant decrease in the incidence of hospitalizations and/or ED visits for patients with hypertension.

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