BackgroundOut-of-hours care in the primary care setting is rapidly changing and evolving towards general practitioner 'cooperatives' (GPC). GPCs already exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, all countries with strong general practice, including gatekeepers' role. This intervention study reports the use and caseload of out-of-hours care before and after implementation of a GPC in a well subscribed region in a country with an open access health care system and no gatekeepers' role for general practice.MethodsWe used a prospective before/after interventional study design. The intervention was the implementation of a GPC.ResultsOne year after the implementation of a GPC, the number of patient contacts in the intervention region significantly increased at the GPC (OR: 1.645; 95% CI: 1.439-1.880), while there were no significant changes in patient contacts at the Emergency Department (ED) or in other regions where a simultaneous registration was performed. Although home visits decreased in all general practitioner registrations, the difference was more pronounced in the intervention region (intervention region: OR: 0.515; 95% CI: 0.411-0.646, other regions: OR: 0.743; 95% CI: 0.608-0.908). At the ED we observed a decrease in the number of trauma cases (OR: 0.789; 95% CI: 0.648-0.960) and of patients who came to hospital by ambulance (OR: 0.687; 95% CI: 0.565-0.836).ConclusionsOne year after its implementation more people seek help at the GPC, while the number of contacts at the ED remains the same. The most prominent changes in caseload are found in the trauma cases. Establishing a GPC in an open health care system, might redirect some patients with particular medical problems to primary care. This could lead to a lowering of costs or a more cost-effective out of hours care, but further research should focus on effective usage to divert patient flows and on quality and outcome of care.

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Although theoretical models predict uptake of inhaled anesthetics during closed-circuit anesthesia (CCA), clinical data for most anesthetics are conflicting or non-existent. In addition, the effects of patient characteristics and mode of ventilation on anesthetic uptake are unclear. Forty-one ASA physical status I or II adult patients undergoing a variety of 1-1.5 h surgical procedures were randomly allocated to receive CCA with desflurane or isoflurane with ventilation being either spontaneous or controlled. An end-expired anesthetic concentration of 1.3 minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) was maintained by continuous injection of the liquid anesthetic into the circuit using a syringe pump. After an initial 4-min wash-in period, uptake during the first hour of CCA was nearly constant. Uptake was the same whether ventilation was spontaneous or controlled. Patient characteristics (age, height, weight, weight3/4, and body surface area) were comparable between groups and did not correlate with uptake. The virtually constant uptake after wash-in of desflurane and isoflurane contrasts with the square root of time model of Lowe and Ernst. These findings may greatly simplify CCA.

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