Differences in the use of emergency room and hospitalization in relation to primary care pediatric services

Two pediatric primary care services in Ofakim, Israel, were compared with respect to their use of hospital emergency room facilities and hospitalizations. The services compared were a community-based university pediatric clinic in which preventive and curative care were merged and a traditional service in which preventive and curative care were provided by different agencies. The university clinic had a considerably lower rate of emergency room visits/1,000 children in the population. The proportion of children who were admitted to hospital, among those referred to the emergency room, was much higher for the university clinic. Consistent differences were not found in the number of hospital admissions/1,000 children in the population, nor in the mean duration of stay of hospitalized children.