ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2023
Characteristics and Health Care Use of Patients Attending Virtual Walk-in Clinics in Ontario, Canada: Cross-sectional Analysis.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- How do interventions in primary care or in emergency departments impact less urgent patients' emergency care utilization? A systematic review.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- Perceptions and use of publicly funded episodic virtual care: Cross-sectional survey data from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2026Article
- Differences in experiences with episodic virtual care based on language of comfort for healthcare services in New Brunswick, Canada.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Article
- Virtual Care Provision and Emergency Department Use Among Children and Youth.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Sociodemographic and Health Behaviour of Frequent, Avoidable Emergency Department Users in Ontario, Canada: A Population-based Descriptive Study.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Social and health determinants of wait times for primary care in Canada.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2025Article
- Response.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2025Article
- Examining experiences and system impacts of publicly funded episodic virtual care: protocol for a cross-provincial mixed methods study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Designed for simplicity, used for complexity: The systemic pressures shaping walk-in clinic practices and outcomes.PloS one · 2025Article
- Primary care in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: Lessons from Ontario.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2025Article
- Article
- Characteristics of walk-in clinic physicians and patients in Ontario: Cross-sectional study.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2024Article
- eVisits to primary care and subsequent health care contacts: a register-based study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Newborn readmissions and virtual primary care delivery: a population-based case-control study.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Public experiences and perspectives of primary care in Canada: results from a cross-sectional survey.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2024Article
- Association of virtual end-of-life care with healthcare outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A population-based study.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
- How the commercial virtual care industry gathers, uses and values patient data: a Canadian qualitative study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Article
- Attending physicians' annual service volume and use of virtual end-of-life care: A population-based cohort study in Ontario, Canada.PloS one · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFunding changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic supported the growth of direct-to-consumer virtual walk-in clinics in several countries. Little is known about patients who attend virtual walk-in clinics or how these clinics contribute to care continuity and subsequent health care use.
objectiveThe objective of the present study was to describe the characteristics and measure the health care use of patients who attended virtual walk-in clinics compared to the general population and a subset that received any virtual family physician visit.
methodsThis was a retrospective, cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada. Patients who had received a family physician visit at 1 of 13 selected virtual walk-in clinics from April 1 to December 31, 2020, were compared to Ontario residents who had any virtual family physician visit. The main outcome was postvisit health care use.
resultsVirtual walk-in patients (n=132,168) had fewer comorbidities and lower previous health care use than Ontarians with any virtual family physician visit. Virtual walk-in patients were also less likely to have a subsequent in-person visit with the same physician (309/132,168, 0.2% vs 704,759/6,412,304, 11%; standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.48), more likely to have a subsequent virtual visit (40,030/132,168, 30.3% vs 1,403,778/6,412,304, 21.9%; SMD 0.19), and twice as likely to have an emergency department visit within 30 days (11,003/132,168, 8.3% vs 262,509/6,412,304, 4.1%; SMD 0.18), an effect that persisted after adjustment and across urban/rural resident groups.
conclusionsCompared to Ontarians attending any family physician virtual visit, virtual walk-in patients were less likely to have a subsequent in-person physician visit and were more likely to visit the emergency department. These findings will inform policy makers aiming to ensure the integration of virtual visits with longitudinal primary care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.