Virtual care and emergency department use: CMAJ

ABSTRACT

Chami et al have clearly shown that the shift from predominantly in-person outpatient encounters to mixed models (with most visits being virtual) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in increased use of the emergency department (ED) by rostered patients of Ontario family physicians practicing in family health groups or family health organizations. Despite the robustness of their study, some questions remain unanswered. The generalizability of their findings outside of Ontario or for patients cared for by fee-for-service physicians is unclear. A recent study from Alberta of 33.7 million outpatient encounters between Mar 2019 and Mar 2021 can help fill this gap. They found that the COVID-19 pandemic did not negatively affect the frequency of outpatient follow-up or prescribing for community- dwelling adults with ambulatory care--sensitive conditions.