Abstract
Demands for same-day clinic appointments have grown over the last thirty years. These demands have been met with the creation of convenient care clinics, retail clinics, and urgent care clinics. While these clinics provide options to address acute illness in settings outside of the emergency department, there is confusion for patients and providers regarding what each setting is appropriate for. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to examine variables influencing primary care providers’ referral choice for same-day conditions and their perspectives regarding the purpose of after-hours care settings.|Data were obtained from a sample of 10 primary care providers in one urban health system. Data indicated the largest variable consistently impacting referral was the patient’s history and symptoms. Lack of clinic appointments was a key variable for urgent care referral. Settings were selected for treating acute illness rather than chronic care or preventative health needs.|Providers understand the purpose of the ED, but appear to have less accurate perceptions about the purpose of other settings. Nurse practitioners can utilize this data to educate colleagues about the purpose of common settings. Data may serve as groundwork to develop a triage algorithm for use to effectively refer to multiple settings.