Walk-ins seeking treatment at an emergency department or general practitioner out-of-hours service: a cross-sectional comparison

Table 2 Patient characteristics and treatment of pooled evaluation periods

	Pooled (n = 1133) ED summer 2007 ED summer 2009	Pooled (n = 768) GP-C winter 2009 GP-C summer 2009 Night doctors summer 2009
Age (years) *	43.8 (42.5-45.0)	58.9 (57.0-60.8)
Male (%)*	53.1	36.5
Walk-in time (%)
7-19	63.6	60.4
19-22	15.8	16.7
22-7	20.6	23.0
Diagnostics (%) *
No	22.3	80.7
Laboratory analysis	54.8	15.3
Radiography	45.3	1.2
EKG	23.2	1.7
Sonography	5.9	0.5
Other °	12.3	2.8
Outpatient care (%)*	79.9	85.7
Injury (%)* ^#	44.4	7.0

* p < 0.05 between the ED and GP-C
° ED: CT, Specialist Consultation, Duplex-Sonography, Echocardiography, Interventional Radiology, MRI, Endoscopy (detailed frequencies see text)
^# According to the ICPC components patients were classified into injury versus non-injury related medical problems

ISSN: 1472-6963