Free-standing emergency centers and the patient population of family physicians.

To determine whether the patients of free-standing emergency centers are similar to the patients seen by family physicians, the age, sex, time of visit, diagnoses, laboratory work, and charges for 1,062 patients from two free-standing emergency centers were compared with available data on the patients seen by a national sample of family physicians. Patients from the emergency centers were predominantly in the 20- to 44-year age range (73.8 percent), were male (56.5 percent), and sought trauma-related treatment or medical examinations (51.7 percent). Laboratory tests were ordered for 30.2 percent of these patients. In contrast, family practice patients were more evenly distributed by age, were more often female (57.6 percent), and had a wide variety of diagnoses. Laboratory tests were ordered for 40.3 percent of the patients. The median free-standing emergency center charge was approximately $10 higher than initial visit fees to family physicians in the same area.