JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Little is known about patients who attend virtual walk-in clinics, or how these clinics contribute to care continuity and subsequent healthcare use.

Objective:

The objective of the present study was to describe the characteristics and measure the healthcare use of patients who attend virtual walk-in clinics compared to the general population, and a subset that received any virtual family physician visit.

Methods:

This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada. Patients who had received a family physician visit at one of 13 selected virtual walk-in clinics from April 1st-December 31st, 2020 were compared to Ontario residents who had any virtual family physician visit. Main outcomes were post-visit healthcare utilization.

Results:

Virtual walk-in patients (N=132,168) had fewer comorbidities and lower previous healthcare utilization than Ontarians with any virtual visit. Compared to Ontarians having any virtual family physician visit, virtual walk-in patients were also less likely to have a subsequent in-person visit with the same physician (0.2% vs. 11.0%, SMD 0.48), more likely to have a subsequent virtual visit (30.3% vs. 21.9%, SMD 0.19), and twice as likely to have an emergency department visit within 30 days (8.3% vs. 4.1%, SMD 0.18), an effect that persisted after adjustment and across rurality groups.

Conclusions:

Compared 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 policymakers to ensure the integration of virtual visits with longitudinal primary care.