PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Bang, Maria AU - Pedersen, Henrik Schou AU - Hammer Bech, Bodil AU - Vestergaard, Claus Høstrup AU - Falhof, Jannik AU - Kjeldsen, Hans Christian AU - Vedsted, Peter AU - Vestergaard, Mogens TI - Advanced Access scheduling in general practice and use of primary care: a Danish population-based matched cohort study AID - 10.3399/bjgpopen20X101091 DP - 2020 Dec 01 TA - BJGP Open PG - bjgpopen20X101091 VI - 4 IP - 5 4099 - http://bjgpopen.org/content/4/5/bjgpopen20X101091.short 4100 - http://bjgpopen.org/content/4/5/bjgpopen20X101091.full SO - BJGP Open2020 Dec 01; 4 AB - Background Advanced access scheduling (AAS) allows patients to receive care from their GP at the time chosen by the patient. AAS has shown to increase the accessibility to general practice, but little is known about how AAS implementation affects the use of in-hours and out-of-hours (OOH) services.Aim To describe the impact of AAS on the use of in-hours and OOH services in primary care.Design & setting A population-based matched cohort study using Danish register data.Method A total of 161 901 patients listed in 33 general practices with AAS were matched with 287 837 reference patients listed in 66 reference practices without AAS. Outcomes of interest were use of daytime face-to-face consultations, and use of OOH face-to-face and phone consultations in a 2-year period preceding and following AAS implementation.Results No significant differences were seen between AAS practices and reference practices. During the year following AAS implementation, the number of daytime face-to-face consultations was 3% (adjusted incidence rate ratio [aIRR] = 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99 to 1.07) higher in the AAS practices compared with the number in the reference practices. Patients listed with an AAS practice had 2% (aIRR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.92 to 1.04) fewer OOH phone consultations and 6% (aIRR = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.86 to 1.02) fewer OOH face-to-face consultations compared with patients listed with a reference practice.Conclusion This study showed no significant differences following AAS implementation. However, a trend was seen towards slightly higher use of daytime primary care and lower use of OOH primary care.