Physician Services

Ambulatory or "walk-in" visits refer to any contact with a physician while the patient is not hospitalized. These include visits in physician offices, personal care homes, emergency rooms, and outpatient departments.

A consult occurs when a client is referred by one physician to another, usually a specialist because of the complexity, obscurity, or seriousness of a patient’s condition, or due to a request for a second opinion. The data available in Manitoba does a good job of counting specialist visits. After the consult, the patient is usually returned to the care of the referring physician.

Physician types are classified into seven categories of practice: general practice (includes family physicians) and specialists (psychiatry, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, medical specialists, general surgeons, and surgical specialists)

Data limitation: Billing claims for fee-for-service physicians and evaluation claims by salaried physicians were used. Evaluation claims (voluntary claims used to record services provided) are not as complete but quality checks are encouraging. The number of evaluation claims is small.

Hospital Services

Both inpatient and surgical outpatient use of hospital services were examined.