Hospitals Find Strategies to Cut ER Costs
Increases in visits to emergency rooms (ER) have resulted in midstate Tennessee hospitals adopting new strategies to help minimize non-emergency visits to the ER. There has been a tremendous increase of patients using the ER for their primary care, which has caused overcrowding and financial strains on many hospitals. The Tennessee Hospital Association reports “that from 2004 to 2006, the cost of ER care increased from $43.8 million to $116.2 million.” It is uncertain how many visits were attributed to non-emergency care, but nationwide statistics indicate that approximately 40 percent of ER visits are for non-emergencies.
The hospitals have established these initiatives to help decrease inappropriate ER visits:
- “Baptist and Saint Thomas hospitals recently began contacting patients who received non-emergency care to help link them with primary-care physicians, some of whom offer care at no cost. The idea is that these patients will visit their doctor, not the ER, for routine care in the future.
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center hands out a list of community clinics to people after they are discharged from the emergency room. The hospital also collects co-payments after treatment to discourage people from thinking that ER care is free. Vanderbilt also has a physician who screens and treats non-emergency patients in a special area to keep exam rooms open for true emergencies.
- Tri-Star Hospitals, which include Centennial Medical Center, Skyline Medical Center and Southern Hills Medical Center, among others, recently launched a program that screens patients and then offers those with non-emergencies a choice of waiting in the ER for care or being linked with a physician in the community. “We are trying to get non-emergency patients to an appropriate place for care and help them establish relationships with primary-care physician so that the next time they will go to the primary-care physicians, not the ER,” said Victor Giovanetti, chief executive officer for Southern Hills Medical Center.”
ER overcrowding has become a national trend. Although it is too soon to determine the benefits of implementing these strategies, Baptist Memorial Health Care has made their educational emergency room campaign available to other hospitals. Program information, sample toolkits and contact and purchase information are available on Baptist’s website.
See also Healthcare Top Concern in U.S.
February 20, 2007 Related topics: Finance, Cost savings