JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Despite the relative longevity of Germany’s non-emergency number 116 117, evidence suggests that awareness of this service remains limited. In light of this, this study turns to the often overlooked medium of primary care practitioner (PCP) websites to promote this service. While these websites may have previously functioned as little more than “electronic nameplates”, as the use of primary care online services, such as online appointment booking, continues to grow so too does their potential to promote and reinforce beneficial health seeking behaviours through the provision of information. The aim of this research is to quantify the availability of “out of hours” (OOH) service information currently provided on PCP websites in Berlin, Germany. To quantify availability of the above a two-stage approach was utilized. In the first stage, the google search site operator was utilized to search the entire website for mention of Germany’s non-emergency number. In the second stage, manual close reading of each PCP website’s homepage (“Startseite”) was conducted alongside use of the find command (ctrl +F) to identify the variables of interest. Homepages were included for further analysis as these are often a website’s default-loading page and provide service users with immediate information and helps them navigate the website. In total, the sampling frame contained details of 4508 physicians working in Berlin and Brandenburg (N = 4508). Search of the entire website for presence of 116 117 indicated that 75 websites featured references to the non-emergency number (32%). 26 featured this information on their homepage (11%). Information on opening hours was more common: 179 websites featured information and/or a link to practice opening hours on their homepage (76%). Overall 13 websites provided information about what to do outside of working hours on their homepage (5%) and all did so with reference to 116 117, explicitly connecting out of hours care with the non-emergency number. The results of this study indicate that a substantial number of physicians are not providing adequate and accessible OOH service information on their websites.