Implementation of a hospital-integrated general practice : a successful way to reduce the burden of inappropriate emergency-department use

Principles: Emergency departments (Eds) are over-crowded by lower acuity patients, which might be more efficiently treated by general practitioners (Gps). This study evaluated the impact of triaging lower acuity patients to a new hospital-integrated general practice (HGP) on ED case-load and the reasons for choosing the ED/HGP. Methods and Results: Patients were consecutively assessed according to the emergency severity index (ESI) to triage lower acuity patients to the HGP. Consultation numbers at the emergency centre (Ed and HGP) increased by 43% between 2007 (n=16974) and 2011 (n=24331) (implementation of HGP in 2009). Although self-referrals increased significantly at the emergency centre from 54% to 63% (p