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Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario
INTRODUCTION: Rural emergency departments (EDs) are important safety nets for the 20% of Canadians who live there. A serious problem in access to health care services in these regions has emerged. However, there are considerable geographic disparities in access to trauma center in Canada. The main o...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4398492/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25874948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123746 |
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author | Fleet, Richard Pelletier, Christina Marcoux, Jérémie Maltais-Giguère, Julie Archambault, Patrick Audette, Louis David Plant, Jeff Bégin, François Tounkara, Fatoumata Korika Poitras, Julien |
author_facet | Fleet, Richard Pelletier, Christina Marcoux, Jérémie Maltais-Giguère, Julie Archambault, Patrick Audette, Louis David Plant, Jeff Bégin, François Tounkara, Fatoumata Korika Poitras, Julien |
author_sort | Fleet, Richard |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Rural emergency departments (EDs) are important safety nets for the 20% of Canadians who live there. A serious problem in access to health care services in these regions has emerged. However, there are considerable geographic disparities in access to trauma center in Canada. The main objective of this project was to compare access to local 24/7 support services in rural EDs in Quebec and Ontario as well as distances to Levels 1 and 2 trauma centers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rural EDs were identified through the Canadian Healthcare Association's Guide to Canadian Healthcare Facilities. We selected hospitals with 24/7 ED physician coverage and hospitalization beds that were located in rural communities. There were 26 rural EDs in Quebec and 62 in Ontario meeting these criteria. Data were collected from ministries of health, local health authorities, and ED statistics. Fisher’s exact test, the t-test or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, were performed to compare rural EDs of Quebec and Ontario. RESULTS: All selected EDs of Quebec and Ontario agreed to participate in the study. The number of EDs visits was higher in Quebec than in Ontario (19 322 ± 6 275 vs 13 446 ± 8 056, p = 0.0013). There were no significant differences between Quebec and Ontario’s local population and small town population density. Quebec’s EDs have better access to advance imaging services such as CT scanner (77% vs 15%, p < .0001) and most the consultant support and ICU (92% vs 31%, p < .0001). Finally, more than 40% of rural EDs in Quebec and Ontario are more than 300 km away from Levels 1 and 2 trauma centers. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that Canada has a Universal health care system, the discrepancies between Quebec and Ontario in access to support services are intriguing. A nationwide study is justified to address this issue. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4398492 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43984922015-04-21 Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario Fleet, Richard Pelletier, Christina Marcoux, Jérémie Maltais-Giguère, Julie Archambault, Patrick Audette, Louis David Plant, Jeff Bégin, François Tounkara, Fatoumata Korika Poitras, Julien PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Rural emergency departments (EDs) are important safety nets for the 20% of Canadians who live there. A serious problem in access to health care services in these regions has emerged. However, there are considerable geographic disparities in access to trauma center in Canada. The main objective of this project was to compare access to local 24/7 support services in rural EDs in Quebec and Ontario as well as distances to Levels 1 and 2 trauma centers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rural EDs were identified through the Canadian Healthcare Association's Guide to Canadian Healthcare Facilities. We selected hospitals with 24/7 ED physician coverage and hospitalization beds that were located in rural communities. There were 26 rural EDs in Quebec and 62 in Ontario meeting these criteria. Data were collected from ministries of health, local health authorities, and ED statistics. Fisher’s exact test, the t-test or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, were performed to compare rural EDs of Quebec and Ontario. RESULTS: All selected EDs of Quebec and Ontario agreed to participate in the study. The number of EDs visits was higher in Quebec than in Ontario (19 322 ± 6 275 vs 13 446 ± 8 056, p = 0.0013). There were no significant differences between Quebec and Ontario’s local population and small town population density. Quebec’s EDs have better access to advance imaging services such as CT scanner (77% vs 15%, p < .0001) and most the consultant support and ICU (92% vs 31%, p < .0001). Finally, more than 40% of rural EDs in Quebec and Ontario are more than 300 km away from Levels 1 and 2 trauma centers. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that Canada has a Universal health care system, the discrepancies between Quebec and Ontario in access to support services are intriguing. A nationwide study is justified to address this issue. Public Library of Science 2015-04-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4398492/ /pubmed/25874948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123746 Text en © 2015 Fleet et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Fleet, Richard Pelletier, Christina Marcoux, Jérémie Maltais-Giguère, Julie Archambault, Patrick Audette, Louis David Plant, Jeff Bégin, François Tounkara, Fatoumata Korika Poitras, Julien Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title | Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title_full | Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title_fullStr | Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title_full_unstemmed | Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title_short | Differences in Access to Services in Rural Emergency Departments of Quebec and Ontario |
title_sort | differences in access to services in rural emergency departments of quebec and ontario |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4398492/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25874948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123746 |
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