Does the Distribution of Booklets on After-hours Consultations to All Residents in a Town Affect the Number of After-hours Visits? An Interrupted Time Series Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Optimization of after-hours visits to medical institutions is one of the major problems in medical systems. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of the distribution of booklets about after-hours common symptom management to all residents on the number of after-hour consultations.

Method: The Tadami town government distributed booklets to all town residents in July 2011. We analyzed the number of after-hours consultations per month at Tadami National Health Insurance Asahi Clinic, which is the only medical institution in the town, from January 2010 to December 2012. We employed an interrupted time series analysis.

Result: The number of included after-hours consultations during the study period was 2,399. The baseline trend was 0.0071 (95% confidence interval −0.011, 0.025), and the slope change from the baseline trend was −0.0061 (−0.034, 0.022).

Conclusion: On comparison of before and after the distribution of a booklet about after-hours common symptom management to all residents in the town, the number of after-hours consultations did not change significantly.