MACCABI-RED, community emergency care at the press of a button: a descriptive study.

Background: Maccabi-RED is a new service developed in Israel that allows primary care staff to direct urgent cases to specialists in the community for evaluation in their local clinics on the same day as an alternative to an emergency department (ED) visit. A primary care physician or a nurse can activate the service, and all nearby specialists receive "a call" and can decide if they are willing to accept it, thus allowing the patient to avoid an unnecessary visit to the ED.

Aim: To quantify and characterize the medical care provided by this service in a large national healthcare system.