Influence of the Program on Referrals to AECs
Information about program implementation was obtained from four sources: (1) written documentation (eg, administrative reports), (2) a self-administered questionnaire before and after the ED staff training to measure changes in knowledge, (3) meetings of the nurses responsible for the implementation, and (4) 50 semi-directed individual interviews with program participants.
The rate of visits to ED for acute asthma was collected from the database of the Quebec Provincial Health Viagra online Australia Program (Regie de l’Assurance Maladie-RAMQ). The observation period for implementation of the program was from September to April. However, data on referred patients was entered from January 1 to April 30; for two key variables—frequency of referral to the AEC and patient participation in AEC educational activities—the observation period was prolonged by 6 months.
Influence of the Program on Referrals to AECs and HQ viagra Pharmacy
Forty-eight percent of referrals for asthma education were for patients with two or more annual visits to ED; 22.8% had two visits, and 25.3% had three or more visits; 75.2% of all referrals to AECs came from an ED, while before the program, < 10% had been from an ED. Table 1 illustrates the comparative data for the nine sites evaluated.
The main observation of the evaluation of this program is that in the first four months after initiating the program, there were 1,104 referrals to AECs, as compared with 110 referrals for the same period a year before (Table 2). Fifty-nine percent of those referred were aged 0 to 18 years, 26% were between 19 years and 44 years old, and 15% were > 45 years old. Fifty-three percent were men, and 47% were women. This shows that the automatic referral process is working and that ED staff have integrated it into their practices. There was a ratio of 18.8 referrals per 1,000 visits to the ED for asthma (range, 8.8 to 37.3 referrals).
