UChicago Medicine cut its nonurgent emergency department visit rates by 45% with a single initiative.
The UCM Medical Home and Specialty Care Connection program launched about 20 years ago with the goal of providing patients who visited for nonurgent reasons with a medical home outside the ED. About 17% of patients who visited a UChicago ED received assistance from patient advocates in the program. They helped patients find a primary care physician, resolve pharmacy issues, address social determinants of health, and visited patient’s bedside or called to offer help.
Many of the patients receiving help come from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
“It’s generations of residents who, for good reason, have not been able to trust the medical system,” Melanie Francia, MHSCC patient advocate manager, told the American Hospital Association. “That’s why education is such a huge part of our program, because we want people to understand that there are places in the community that are meant for this, meant for them and will take care of their needs.”
In the last nine years, the program has prevented approximately 9,487 trips to the ED and saved an estimated $2.9 million.
Across the nation, about one-third of the ED visits qualify as nonurgent, and cost an estimated $32 billion annually in healthcare spending, according to a Portland-based University of Southern Maine policy brief.
