Does the extension of primary care practice opening hours reduce the use of emergency services?

Matteo Lippi Bruni (), Irene Mammi and Cristina Ugolini

Working Papers from Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna

Abstract: Over-crowding in Emergency Departments (EDs) generates potential inefficiencies. Using regional administrative data, we investigate the impact of an increase in the accessibility of primary care on ED visits in Italy. We test whether extending practice opening hours up to 12 hours/day reduces inappropriate ED visits. We estimate count data models, considering different measures for ED visits recorded at the list level. Since the extension programme is voluntary, we also account for the potential endogeneity of participation, using a two-stage residual inclusion and a GMM approach. Our results show that improving primary care accessibility favours a more appropriate use of EDs.

JEL-codes: C31 I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: Does the extension of primary care practice opening hours reduce the use of emergency services? (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp978

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