Table 5.

Use of emergency department services by study patients, by location and type of physician group

	All locations		Major urban centres		Non-major urban centres		Rural centres
Variable	Enhanced fee-for-service	Capitation	Enhanced fee-for-service	Capitation	Enhanced fee-for-service	Capitation	Enhanced fee-for-service	Capitation
No. of visits, mean (SD)	0.4 (1.2)	0.5 (1.3)	0.3 (1.1)	0.3 (0.9)	0.6 (1.4)	0.6 (1.3)	0.9 (2.0)	1.0 (1.9)
Ratio of semiurgent or nonurgent visits to urgent visits*	0.9	1.6	0.6	0.7	1.5	1.6	2.6	4.8
Ratio of after-hours to regular-hour visits†	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1
% of patients who visited emergency department during past 6 months‡	23.2	27.7	20.3	20.6	30.6	30.3	39.2	43.3
No. of visits in 2005/06, mean (SD)	0.48 (1.07)	0.49 (1.21)	0.31 (0.94)	0.32 (0.89)	0.54 (1.25)	0.52 (1.18)	0.80 (1.84)	0.93 (1.82)
No. of visits in 2003/04, mean (SD)	0.37 (1.05)	0.48 (1.21)	0.30 (0.90)	0.32 (0.88)	0.54 (1.31)	0.52 (1.24)	0.84 (1.80)	0.90 (1.79)

Note: SD = standard deviation.

^*Semiurgent and nonurgent visits were those rated as 4 and 5 on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale; urgent visits were those rated as 1, 2 or 3 on the scale.¹⁹

^†Visits during regular hours were those on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm.

^‡From October 2005 to March 2006.