Term: Ambulatory Visits - Physician

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2013-10-30

Definition:

Ambulatory visits include almost all contacts with physicians; this includes office visits, walk-in clinics, home visits, personal care home (PCH)/nursing home visits and visits to outpatient departments. The type of service provided is defined by a tariff code.

General Practitioner (GP)/Family Practitioner (FP) are now referred to as Family Physicians.

In MCHP research, the term Ambulatory Visits - Physician have also been called Ambulatory Visits, Ambulatory Physician Visits, Physician Claims, Physician Visits, and Ambulatory Visits (Physician Visits). In more recent research, the term Ambulatory Visits - Primary Care Provider has been used.

Ambulatory Visits - Physician data are found in the Medical Services Data.

Inclusions/Exclusions: Over time, some services have been included/excluded as part of the ambulatory visits - physician definition:

• visits to patients while they are admitted to a hospital (inpatient) have always been excluded;
  
• in some research ambulatory visits include emergency room visits (where data are recorded) and contact in northern/remote nursing stations. In recent research, emergency room visits have been excluded from the definition;
  
• up until work in 2009 (Brownell et al., 2010), prenatal care visits were excluded because of tariff coding issues. However, specific prenatal care visit tariff codes were introduced and these visits have been included in the ambulatory visits definition since then;
  
• in some research, additional exclusions are made depending on the focus of the study. For example, in Katz et al. (2013), additional exclusions included services provided to patients admitted to personal care homes (PCH) and emergency departments, as well as visits to pediatrics, radiology, pathology and anaesthesiology.

Related concepts 

• Ambulatory Visits
• Physician / Hospital Claims
• Total Respiratory Morbidity (TRM) - Measuring Prevalence
• Undercounting Hospital Visits

Related terms 

• Ambulatory Care
• Ambulatory Visit Rate (Physician Visits)
• Ambulatory Visit Rates to Specialists
• Ambulatory Visits - Primary Care Provider / Ambulatory Primary Care Visits
• Ambulatory Visits by Age and Sex
• Causes of Ambulatory Visits
• Complete Physical Exams
• Consultations (Ambulatory)
• Continuity Of Care (COC) (Ambulatory)
• Family Physician (FP) / Family Physicians
• Full-Scope Physician
• Global Billing
• Infertility Treatment Prevalence
• Limited Scope Family Physician (FP)
• Location of Ambulatory Visits
• Location of Visits to Physicians / Primary Care Providers
• Location of Visits to Specialists
• Majority of Care (Ambulatory)
• Medical Services / Medical Claims Data
• Non-Consultative Care
• Other Specialist Visits
• Patient Characteristics
• Percent of Visits from Non-Allocated Patients
• Physician Access
• Physician Claims
• Physician Contact Rate
• Physician Costs
• Physician Visits - Mental Health Related
• Seizure Disorders (Chronic Disease Algorithm)
• Special Call Claims
• Specialist Contact Rate
• Tariff Codes
• Use of / Access to Physicians / Primary Care Providers
• Use of Physicians with Capacity to Offer Services in French
• User
• Visit Index (VI)
• Visits per Annum per Family Physician (FP)
• Visits per Resident
• Visits per Wednesday per Family Physician (FP)

References 

• Brownell M, Chartier M, Au W, Schultz J. Evaluation of the Healthy Baby Program. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2010. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Frohlich N, Katz A, De Coster C, Dik N, Soodeen RA, Watson D, Bogdanovic B. Profiling Primary Care Physician Practice in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2006. [Report] [Summary] (View)

Term used in 

• Brownell M, Chartier M, Santos R, Ekuma O, Au W, Sarkar J, MacWilliam L, Burland E, Koseva I, Guenette W. How are Manitoba's Children Doing? Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2012. [Report] [Summary] [Updates and Errata] [Additional Materials] (View)
• Brownell M, De Coster C, Penfold R, Derksen S, Au W, Schultz J, Dahl M. Manitoba Child Health Atlas Update. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2008. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)
• Chartier M, Finlayson G, Prior H, McGowan K, Chen H, de Rocquigny J, Walld R, Gousseau M. Health and Healthcare Utilization of Francophones in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2012. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Fransoo R, Martens P, Prior H, Chateau D, McDougall C, Schultz J, McGowan K, Soodeen R, Bailly A. Adult Obesity in Manitoba: Prevalence, Associations, and Outcomes. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2011. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Fransoo R, Martens P, Burland E, The Need to Know Team, Prior H, Burchill C. Manitoba RHA Indicators Atlas 2009. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2009. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)
• Fransoo R, Martens P, The Need to Know Team, Prior H, Burchill C, Koseva I, Bailly A, Allegro E. The 2013 RHA Indicators Atlas. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2013. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)
• Frohlich N, Carriere KC. Issues in Developing Indicators for Needs-Based Funding. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1997. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Katz A, Chateau D, Bogdanovic B, Taylor C, McGowan K-L, Rajotte L, Dziadek J. Physician Integrated Network: A Second Look. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2014. [Report] [Summary] [Updates and Errata] (View)
• Katz A, Martens P, Chateau D, Bogdanovic B, Koseva I, McDougall C, Boriskewich E. Understanding the Health System Use of Ambulatory Care Patients. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2013. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Katz A, De Coster C, Bogdanovic B, Soodeen R, Chateau D. Using Administrative Data to Develop Indicators of Quality in Family Practice. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2004. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Lix L, Smith M, Pitz M, Ahmed R, Quon H, Griffith J, Turner D, Hong S, Prior H, Banerjee A, Koseva I, Kulbaba C. Cancer Data Linkage in Manitoba: Expanding the Infrastructure for Research. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2016. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Roos NP, Fransoo R, Bogdanovic B, Friesen D, MacWilliam L. Issues in the Management of Specialist Physician Resources for Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1997. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Roos NP, Fransoo R, Bogdanovic B, Friesen D, Frohlich N, Carriere KC, Patton D, Wall R. Needs-Based Planning for Manitoba's Generalist Physicians . Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1996. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Smith M, Finlayson G, Martens P, Dunn J, Prior H, Taylor C, Soodeen RA, Burchill C, Guenette W, Hinds A. Social Housing in Manitoba. Part II: Social Housing and Health in Manitoba: A First Look. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2013. [Report] [Summary] (View)