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Many health systems are building home visiting nurse programs into their population health strategies. However, it is unclear whether visiting nurses reduce overall healthcare utilization. Using administrative databases, researchers in Ontario performed a population-based case-crossover study to determine whether a home visit by a nurse was associated with a same-day emergency department (ED) visit after 5 pm (allowing for late-day nurse visits). The study involved 7265 patients receiving visiting nurse care; for each patient, ED use was compared between days with and days without a nurse visit.
The odds of an ED visit were higher on days when patients had a visit from their nurse, both for patients with long-term home care (typically frail …