Angela Flowers1, Kate Shade. 1. Angela Flowers, DNP, MBA, RN, is an advanced practice nurse who combines hospital case management with more than 18 years of health care management consulting experience. She has experience working directly with patients to executing successful large-scale health system change initiatives. Her clinical and research interests are in tackling the challenging issues that strain health care delivery systems. Kate Shade, PhD, RN, is an associate professor with the School of Nursing at Samuel Merritt University. Dr. Shade has experience in public health case management. She conducts research with youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
Abstract
PURPOSE OF STUDY: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement multidisciplinary care coordination program designed to reduce frequent emergency department (ED) utilization and hospital admissions. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING: The single hospital ED is part of a large, integrated, managed care delivery system in Northern California serving the city of Oakland, California. METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLE: A retrospective cohort study design was used to analyze a multidisciplinary care coordination program on 58 patients during January 2015 and August 2018. Patients were identified from a high-utilization report when they had 10 or more ED visits in a 6-month period, were 18 years of age or older, and members of the integrated delivery system's health plan. Data were collected at initiation and 6 months postintervention. The pre-/postanalysis consisted of descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant pre-/postdifference of 7.7 ED visits (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.44-10.97, p < .001). The program did not result in statistically significant reduced hospital admissions (95% CI =-1.24 to 1.45, p = .875). Prior frequent use, number of pre-ED visits, age, sex, complex medical history, and mental health disorder had a significant effect on frequent ED use (χ[6] =17.62, p = .007, McFadden R = .32]. Sex (odds ratio [OR] = 5.13, p = .070), prior frequent use (OR = 2.87, p = .252), and complex medical history (OR = 2.52, p = .412) had the greatest odds of ongoing frequent ED use. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: We demonstrated reductions in ED use among frequent users with a low-cost care management intervention. Our multidisciplinary care coordination program confirms the positive impact case management has on utilization and health outcomes. We established that a care coordination program can optimize the overall quality of care and control hospital costs incurred by this vulnerable population. The effectiveness of this program contributes to the advancement of case management efforts in undertaking the challenging health care issue of reducing repeated visits by frequent users, a practice that strains emergency medical services.
PURPOSE OF STUDY: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement multidisciplinary care coordination program designed to reduce frequent emergency department (ED) utilization and hospital admissions. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING: The single hospital ED is part of a large, integrated, managed care delivery system in Northern California serving the city of Oakland, California. METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLE: A retrospective cohort study design was used to analyze a multidisciplinary care coordination program on 58 patients during January 2015 and August 2018. Patients were identified from a high-utilization report when they had 10 or more ED visits in a 6-month period, were 18 years of age or older, and members of the integrated delivery system's health plan. Data were collected at initiation and 6 months postintervention. The pre-/postanalysis consisted of descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant pre-/postdifference of 7.7 ED visits (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.44-10.97, p < .001). The program did not result in statistically significant reduced hospital admissions (95% CI =-1.24 to 1.45, p = .875). Prior frequent use, number of pre-ED visits, age, sex, complex medical history, and mental health disorder had a significant effect on frequent ED use (χ[6] =17.62, p = .007, McFadden R = .32]. Sex (odds ratio [OR] = 5.13, p = .070), prior frequent use (OR = 2.87, p = .252), and complex medical history (OR = 2.52, p = .412) had the greatest odds of ongoing frequent ED use. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: We demonstrated reductions in ED use among frequent users with a low-cost care management intervention. Our multidisciplinary care coordination program confirms the positive impact case management has on utilization and health outcomes. We established that a care coordination program can optimize the overall quality of care and control hospital costs incurred by this vulnerable population. The effectiveness of this program contributes to the advancement of case management efforts in undertaking the challenging health care issue of reducing repeated visits by frequent users, a practice that strains emergency medical services.
Authors: Stephen Orme; Gary A Zarkin; Laura J Dunlap; Courtney D Nordeck; Robert P Schwartz; Shannon G Mitchell; Christopher Welsh; Kevin E O'Grady; Jan Gryczynski Journal: Med Care Date: 2022-06-10 Impact factor: 3.178
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