Table 5 Associations between the Finnish medical desert index and select indicators of care utilization, accessibility and availability, satisfaction, and continuity of care
Medical desert index Physical consultations | Medical desert index Also incl. telehealth* | |
|---|---|---|
Kendall rank correlation coefficient, τ (p-value) | ||
Care utilization (n = 293) | ||
Emergency department consultations per 1000 | −0.041 (0.293) | 0.000 (0.997) |
Proportion of acute care consultations out of all PHC consultations | −0.138 (< 0.001) | −0.126 (0.001) |
Hospital care days of treatment per 1000 | −0.150 (< 0.001) | −0.115 (0.003) |
Clients returning to ED within 48 h (%) | −0.012 (0.758) | −0.056 (0.155) |
Care accessibility and availability (n = 256–284) | ||
PHC over 3 months wait for physiciana | −0.047 (0.357) | −0.048 (0.341) |
PHC over 7 days wait for physicianb | 0.075 (0.073) | 0.068 (0.106) |
PHC over 7 days wait for nursec | −0.001 (0.974) | 0.023 (0.569) |
Care satisfaction (n = 168) | ||
Healthcare center reception: Timeliness | −0.005 (0.921) | −0.001 (0.993) |
Healthcare center reception: Usefulness | 0.025 (0.655) | 0.017 (0.754) |
Continuity of Care (n = 270–286) | ||
Physician: All clientsd | 0.022 (0.578) | 0.063 (0.117) |
Physician: 65 + year old clientse | −0.111 (0.007) | −0.078 (0.060) |
Physician: Multimorbid clientsd | 0.029 (0.473) | 0.064 (0.109) |