In an effort to cut down on emergency room traffic and unnecessary hospital visits by nonemergency patients, the UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest teamed up with three local community clinics to implement a new computer system that attempts to make it easier for ER doctors to send their patients to community clinics for follow-up appointments.
The UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest has partnered with three area clinics via a new computer referral system to help ease emergency room traffic and aid patient transfer.
The new program, Impact ED, allows for ER staff at the medical center to directly make appointments for three San Diego Family Care-operated clinics: Linda Vista Health Care Center, Mid-City Community Clinic and Mid-City Community Clinic-Pediatrics. The project is funded by the Alliance Healthcare Foundation.
The implementation of Impact ED came in response to the current congestion that plagues emergency rooms throughout the country. UCSD Medical Center, along with hospitals nationwide, faces frequent overcrowding, which has become an increasingly difficult problem for hospitals. The ER traffic is, in part, due to unnecessary emergency room visits made by patients with nonemergencies and uninsured patients looking to have their medical expenses covered.
“”Often people who do not have a primary care provider or ‘medical home’ where they go for low-level severity conditions feel that they have no alternative but to go to the emergency room,”” AHF President Ruth Riedel said. “”Many of these patients who show up at the hospital are not seriously ill, but they don’t have the insurance coverage to see a primary care physician.””
According to Riedel, the overcrowding poses a problem for the ER doctors and staff, but also to the nonemergency patients themselves. These patients are forced to wait much longer for expensive medical services that would be cheaper and more easily accessible at a primary care provider.
Unfortunately, traffic in the emergency room also detracts from the severely ill patients and trauma patients who are in need of urgent care.
“”The current methods that hospitals are using to refer their patients to clinics are ineffective,”” UCSD Medical Center Director Ted Chan said. “”Patients are often just given a list of phone numbers of doctors to call for future medical services. The problem with this is that those patients don’t usually call these numbers and never find the primary care services that they need, which leaves them no better off then they were before.””
According to Chan, Impact ED is a much more effective way to service these patients because they can immediately schedule follow-up appointments at one of three San Diego community clinics before leaving the emergency room.
“”With Impact ED, community clinics have a direct link to these patients,”” he said. “”Clinics are provided with the patients’ information electronically so that the clinics can get in touch with each patient directly, and so that they can remind patients of their appointments. Because patients already have appointments at these clinics through Impact ED, it is less likely for them to show up at the emergency room again within a few weeks seeking routine care.””
The Impact ED software was designed to work with the UCSD electronic medical records system. The emergency room computers alert staff when a patient in the hospital does not have a primary care physician and comes from an area that is close to one of the community clinics participating in Impact ED.
“”What’s great about this program is that the patients can continue to go back to the community clinics that they are referred to so that they can build a relationship with the doctors there,”” Riedel said. “”This way, they can get the preventative care and family care that they need without going to the emergency room to find it. It is really an incredible opportunity for these patients.””
Riedel added that once patients arrive at the community clinics, they are given information about insurance coverage and have the opportunity to become enrolled at the clinic with the assistance of clinic employees.
Although Impact ED was launched only four weeks ago, Riedel and Chan agree that they are very optimistic about its success in the future.
Currently, approximately half of the patients scheduled for follow-up visits are showing up for their appointments - but the figures are continuing to grow.
