Ceara T Cunningham
Canada
Review Article
Association between Primary Health Care Access and Acute Care
Utilization for Hypertension: A Systematic Review
Author(s): Kamala Adhikari, Hena Qureshi, Amy Metcalfe, Robin L Walker, Ceara T Cunningham, Kerry McBrien and Paul E RonksleyKamala Adhikari, Hena Qureshi, Amy Metcalfe, Robin L Walker, Ceara T Cunningham, Kerry McBrien and Paul E Ronksley
Background: Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC) are chronic conditions for which hospitalizations can potentially be avoided through timely and effective primary health care; one of these is hypertension. However, the association between primary health care access and ACSC hospitalizations is not consistent in the literature. We conducted a systematic review to assess the association between primary health care access and hospitalizations or emergency department visits using hypertension as the ACSC of interest.
Methods: We searched two electronic databases (Medline and Embase) from inception to September 2017 to identify all observational studies evaluating the association between primary health care access and acute care utilization (hospitalizations or emergency department visits) for patients diagnosed with hypertension. Results we.. View More»
