Health Systems Cut Avoidable ED Visits With Real-Time Insights From ED Optimization
MLK Community Healthcare’s primary service area covers 376,116 patients in Los Angeles, with many of them facing challenges related to social determinants of health.
Learn how PointClickCare helped these hospitals identify high-risk patients and capture care insights.
49%
Reduction in
ED utilization
100+
Hours of ED provider time
saved per week
With PointClickCare's ED Optimization solution, we save an average of one hour per provider shift — totaling over 110 hours per week — that’s no longer spent searching for information. By providing real-time data in standardized forms, the solution saves valuable time, allowing us to focus more on patient care. It has helped us reduce hospital stays, improve care, keep our staff safe, and make a meaningful impact on the people we serve.
Gina Sulmeyer
Executive Director of Medical Informatics, Torrance Memorial Medical Center
The Challenge
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Limited visibility into patient information prevented proactive interventions and led to high ED utilization and resource strain.
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Communication inefficiencies across different departments and facilities created barriers to improving patient throughput and care consistency.
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Encounters with patients required proper documentation and billing to receive full reimbursement from payers. This required an ability to track patient interactions and provide necessary care to meet reimbursement criteria.
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Without real-time data and alerts, it was challenging to address safety and security concerns and ensure that staff were aware of potential threats before they arise.
The Solution
Torrance Memorial and MLK Community Healthcare implemented PointClickCare’s ED Optimization solution for improved visibility into clinical data, supporting proactive care and better outcomes.
Torrance Memorial and MLK Community Healthcare implemented PointClickCare’s ED Optimization solution for improved visibility into clinical data, supporting proactive care and better outcomes.
- ED point of care decisions are improved with real-time patient alerts triggered within seconds of patient ED registration.
- Patient history gaps with summarized and actionable clinical and safety insights are seamlessly integrated into EHR workflows.
- High-needs, complex patients are quickly identified, allowing staff to coordinate the most appropriate level of care.
- ED operations are optimized by supporting the ability to deliver treatment faster with actionable data.
The Outcome
49%
Reduction in
ED utilization
100+
Hours of ED provider time
saved per week
Torrance Memorial discovered that ED Optimization’s actionable, real-time notifications significantly improved ED utilization, with high-risk patient utilization decreasing from 4.5 to 2.3 visits in 90 days. Additionally, inpatient needs dropped from 18.1% to 0.8%, and ED length of stay reduced from nine to six hours.
Improved insights also significantly reduced the time required by providers to locate critical patient data within the EHR, including potential security risks. Along with saving valuable time and helping to ensure staff safety, this increased visibility allows the team to better coordinate detailed care plans for patients and supports more informed treatment decisions.
Additionally, clinicians gained the ability to initiate timely coordination of referrals and follow-up care. This allows them to provide necessary care and resources for high-risk patients, and helps ensure encounters are documented for reimbursement purposes.
MLK Community Healthcare also experienced improved outcomes after implementing ED Optimization. With real-time data and alerts, their social work teams, including Substance Abuse Navigators, can collaborate more effectively with their Street Medicine program and Housing Support Services when members of these programs presented in the ED.
This improved care coordination allows them to initiate immediate referrals for housing or community follow-up, ensure care plans developed by the Street Medicine team are followed, build rapport between teams, and educate the treating team about patient’s social and medical history more effectively.