The pediatric population of two free-standing emergency clinics

We studied the pediatric patient population of two free-standing emergency clinics (FECs) through an audit of medical records for 20 days randomly selected throughout 1983. We recorded the age, sex, number of visits, patient diagnoses, laboratory work, and charges. This information was compared with earlier national studies of physician practice. Of the 1062 visits audited, 27.6 percent were by patients 21 years of age or younger. This number is comparable to the percentage of office visits made to a national sample of general and family practitioners but well below the same figure for pediatricians. The pattern of FEC visits by this age group emerged as quite different from the pattern of visits to a national sample of office-based physicians by the same age group. The most frequent diagnoses for pediatric patients visiting FECs were upper respiratory infection (31.9%) and trauma related problems (28.5%). The number of laboratory diagnostic procedures ordered in FECs was lower than similar statistics for a national sample of pediatricians. Mean charges for visits in the FECs studied were $40.23.