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Emergency Exits: Reducing Emergency Room Utilization by Retooling Care-Seeking and Care Access Options
Emergency Exits Reducing Emergency Room Utilization by Retooling CareSeeking and Care Access Options Author:Karen Amstutz, M.D., Lakshmi Dhanvanthari, and James Glauber In this 35-page special report, three physicians share the specifics of their health plans' ER diversion initiatives that have roots in patient self-care education, physician office adaptability and hospital-health plan partnerships. Their reframed approaches to emergency room utilization and primary care have netted them significant reductions ... more »in both ER visits and hospital admissions. After analyzing internal and NHAMCS data, WellPoint and Neighborhood Health Plan employed low touch, broad-based strategies built around patient education rather than expending energy on low numbers of frequent flyers whose behaviors are unlikely to change, or significantly affect an organization's financial health. This special report provides a blueprint for health plans, hospitals and providers desiring to address and reduce unnecessary ER utilization in their populations. It also contains a wealth of tactics from the more than 220 healthcare organizations that responded to HIN's e-survey on dealing with unnecessary ER visitors.« less