Who provides walk-in services? Survey of primary care practice in Ontario

To compare walk-in clinics with other primary care settings on characteristics associated with best practices in primary care.

A mailed self-administered questionnaire asked about organizational and clinical characteristics of primary care practices located in major urban and suburban areas in Ontario.

Four types of fee-for-service group practices: walk-in and urgent-care clinics (WICs), mixed practices (MPs), after-hours clinics (AHCs), and group family practices (GFPs).

A physician or a staff member involved in practice administration.

The four practice types were compared on organizational characteristics and measures of access, continuing care, comprehensiveness, coordination, and mechanisms for monitoring quality of care.

Walk-in clinics, MPs, and AHCs were open more hours during evenings and weekends and were more likely to see patients without appointments; GFPs were more likely to have on-call arrangements. Group family practices saw a larger proportion of patients for whom they provided ongoing care; WICs and MPs reported that more than 60% of their visits were with "regular" patients. Walk-in clinics were less likely to provide preventive services and psychological counseling than were GFPs and MPs. A few WICs, MPs, and GFPs had procedures to support coordination of care or to monitor quality of care.

Although WICs, MPs, and AHCs provided walk-in services to Ontario patients, WICs and MPs also provided a substantial amount of ongoing care and preventive services. Independent AHCs appeared to most closely fit the "walk-in clinic" stereotype.