Baseline demographic characteristics for all eligible virtual urgent care (VUC) records, classified by adult and pediatric VUC pilot sites*
| Characteristic | No. (%) of patient encounters† | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult n = 12 593 | Pediatric n = 7002 | Overall n = 19 595 | |
| Age, yr, mean ± SD | 40.7 ± 19.3 | 3.9 ± 4.4 | 27.6 ± 23.6 |
| Sex, female | 8291 (65.8) | 3419 (48.8) | 11 710 (59.8) |
| Urban residents | 12 183 (96.7) | 6415 (91.6) | 18 598 (94.9) |
| Neighbourhood income quintiles 4–5‡ | 4932 (39.2) | 3586 (51.2) | 8518 (43.5) |
| ON-Marg ethnic diversity quintiles 4–5‡ | 6778 (53.8) | 3227 (46.1) | 10 005 (51.1) |
| ON-Marg residential instability quintiles 4–5‡ | 5750 (45.7) | 2460 (35.1) | 8210 (41.9) |
| ON-Marg material deprivation quintiles 4–5‡ | 4779 (37.9) | 1566 (22.4) | 6345 (32.4) |
| ON-Marg dependency quintiles 4–5‡ | 3686 (29.3) | 1700 (24.3) | 5386 (27.5) |
| Asthma | 3132 (24.9) | 809 (11.5) | 3941 (20.1) |
| Congestive heart failure | 341 (2.7) | – | 341 (1.7) |
| Hypertension | 2702 (21.5) | – | 2702 (13.8) |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 322 (2.6) | – | 322 (1.6) |
| Diabetes | 1456 (11.6) | 28 (0.4) | 1484 (7.6) |
| Dementia | 189 (1.5) | – | 189 (1.0) |
| Johns Hopkins ADGs | |||
| 0–4 | 3509 (27.9) | 2576 (36.8) | 6085 (31.0) |
| 5–9 | 5421 (43.0) | 3386 (48.4) | 8807 (44.9) |
| 10–14 | 2810 (22.3) | 938 (13.4) | 3748 (19.1) |
| ≥ 15 | 853 (6.8) | 102 (1.5) | 955 (4.9) |
| Physician (PCP and specialists) visits in preceding 365 d, mean ± SD | 11.40 ± 15.2 | 6.49 ± 6.8 | 9.64 ± 13.0 |
| ED visits in preceding 365 d, mean ± SD | 1.32 ± 4.1 | 0.86 ± 1.5 | 1.16 ± 3.4 |
| Hospital admissions in preceding 365 d, mean ± SD | 0.21 ± 0.8 | 0.31 ± 0.7 | 0.24 ± 0.8 |
| No. of patients with PCP information reported | 11 618 | 7002 | 18 620 |
| Patient has PCP | 9492 (81.7) | 6291 (89.8) | 15 783 (84.8) |
| No. of patients with acuity level§ | 4283 | – | 4283 |
| Resuscitation (CTAS 1) | 1–5** | – | 1–5** |
| Emergent (CTAS 2) | 279–283** | – | 279–283** |
| Urgent (CTAS 3) | 1061 (24.8) | – | 1061 (24.8) |
| Less urgent (CTAS 4) | 1030 (24.0) | – | 1030 (24.0) |
| Nonurgent (CTAS 5) | 1908 (44.5) | – | 1908 (44.5) |
| No. of patients with VUC discharge disposition¶ | 10 800 | 6234 | 17 034 |
| Discharged home | 7461 (69.1) | 4382 (70.3) | 11 843 (69.5) |
| Referred to ED | 1872 (17.3) | 1059 (17.0) | 2931 (17.2) |
| Referred to PCP | 692 (6.4) | 423 (6.8) | 1115 (6.5) |
| Referred to specialist | 573 (5.3) | 90 (1.4) | 663 (3.9) |
| Referred to COVID-19 or outpatient clinic | 202 (1.9) | 280 (4.5) | 482 (2.8) |
↵Note: ADGs = aggregated diagnosis groupings, CTAS = Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, ED = emergency department, ON-Marg = Ontario Marginalization Index, PCP = primary care provider, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Adult sites were Lakeridge Health, Health Sciences North/Horizon Santé Nord, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Humber River Hospital, University Health Network, William Osler Health System, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Unity Health Toronto. Pediatric sites were the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, London Health Sciences Centre and SickKids.
↵† Unless otherwise specified.
↵‡ Quintiles 4–5 represent the highest income, diversity, instability, deprivation and dependency.
↵§ None of the pediatric VUC sites reported CTAS scores.
↵¶ 2561 missing disposition.
↵** Data in cells are suppressed to protect patient privacy.