Emergency Department Utilization
Helping Patients Get the Care They Need and Reducing Inappropriate Use of Emergency Departments
PointClickCare delivers real-time notifications with insights at the point of care not just to emergency department (ED) physicians, but to the patient’s entire care team.
Jack’s Story
Jack’s daughter* had repeated and alarming asthma attacks. Unsure how to access primary care, Jack turned to the ED for his daughter’s pediatric asthma attacks.
Uninsured and working several jobs to make ends meet, he took her to the only place he knew he could get her immediate care at any hour—the hospital emergency department.
Through the PointClickCare platform, care managers were notified of Jack’s daughter’s repeated ED visits.
The day after his daughter’s most recent ED visit, a nurse reached out to Jack to better understand his situation, help him navigate his options through Medicaid, and work with him to schedule an appointment at a primary care physician with evening hours.
She hasn’t needed an ED visit since.
*(Anonymized patient story)
Alerts Designed to Support the Unique Needs of the Emergency Department
In the ED, seconds matter. PointClickCare curates patient data into a focused alert to help ED providers make rapid, informed decisions for better patient outcomes.
Get information at the point of care including:
- Care team-provided care plans
- Prescription histories/PDMP data*
- Insights into social determinants of health
- Health care utilization patterns
- Advance directives/POLST*
- Security alerts
- Continuity of Care Documents (CCD)
*in states where available
Avoid Preventable Admissions and Identify and Support Patients with Patterns of High Utilization
Get notifications for patients with patterns of high utilization or complex needs as soon as they register—notifications are also sent to other members of the patient’s care team, so they can intervene and redirect patients to more appropriate settings for care to avoid misuse of emergency room services.
Integrate Seamlessly with Existing Workflows and EHRs
PointClickCare delivers notifications directly into your systems, regardless of EHR, or sends alerts by fax, network printer, email, or text message. This ability to embrace each facility’s unique needs and workflows aligns providers, giving them a shared playbook—wherever the patient goes, PointClickCare follows.
After implementing PointClickCare, ED care teams in Washington state saw $34 million in savings in the program’s first year resulting from:
- 9.9% Reduction in overall ED Medicaid visits
- 10.7% Reduction in ED visits among frequent utilizers
- 14.2% Reduction in low-acuity ED visits
- 24% Reduction in narcotic prescriptions from the ED
Source: The Brookings Institution
To learn how PointClickCare can help improve emergency department throughput and reduce utilization rates with better care coordination
This article was originally published by Collective Medical, now a part of PointClickCare.
