San Diego Seeks Ways To Manage Frequent Users of Emergency Services

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem.news.service at gmail.com
Wed Apr 11 11:24:26 PDT 2012


Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: CAL/AAEM:
California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine

 

April 4, 2012

 

San Diego Seeks Ways To Manage Frequent Users of Emergency Services

 

 

California Healthline
<http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2012/4/4/san-diego-seeks-ways-
to-manage-frequent-users-of-emergency-services.aspx#ixzz1rK3b28oq> 

 

 

San Diego officials are looking into ways to reduce costs associated with
emergency service "frequent fliers" -- a group of mostly homeless patients
who use the 911 system and hospital emergency departments in rates
disproportionate to their small numbers, U-T San Diego reports. 

 

The San Diego Tribune article was produced by the California HealthCare
Foundation's Center for Health Reporting. The center is supported by a grant
from CHCF, which publishes California Healthline. 

 

The article is part of a series on the city's push to manage frequent users
of emergency services. 

 

Background

 

Frequent emergency service users represent eight-hundredths of a percent of
San Diego's population, but they account for more than 17% of paramedic and
ambulance calls in the city.

 

According to the city medical director's office, 1,136 frequent emergency
service users in San Diego are on pace to use emergency medical services at
least six times this year and generate more than $20 million in ambulance
and paramedic charges.

 

Many health care procedures cost three times as much in the ED as they do in
other hospital settings, according to U-T San Diego.

 

Frequent emergency service users typically are difficult to treat because
they often have chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure,
in addition to mental illnesses and substance misuse problems.

 

Meanwhile, hospitals across the U.S. rely on frequent users of emergency
services to draw billions in federal reimbursements, according to San Diego
Medical Director James Dunford. 

 

He said, "There are no benchmarks or incentives to provide higher quality
care" for frequent emergency service users, "only the idea that some
hospitals take care of more people like this." Dunford added, "The cost is
born by the taxpayers without ever taking a look at how that money could be
better spent."

 

Addressing the Challenges

 

John Lozier -- executive director of the National Health Care for the
Homeless Council -- said that frequent emergency service users who are
homeless need "good, strong primary care that will prevent many emergencies
from occurring in the first place."

 

Dunford said frequent emergency service users should have access to
coordinated health care and housing programs. In addition, Dunford has been
working to compile real-time electronic 911 records that can be used to
identify frequent emergency service users by name, need and likely location
(Gonzales, U-T San Diego, 3/31).

 

 

 

 

 

Bryan Sloane
Deputy Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service

 

Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service



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