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56
NOV / DEC 2014
I
Healthcare Journal of new orleans
Emergency Initiative
Efforts underway to cut ED use
for non-emergent care
emergency care is highly regarded. From the
perspective of the consumer, all of the hospi-
tal’s resources are at your disposal. Seeing a
specialist may be as simple as paging a doc-
tor just a few floors up. Inmany cases, the ED
is our front door to the hospital.
However, this seemingly simple choice
in care leads to major repercussions for our
health care system. Inmany ways, a large vol-
ume of non-emergent patients threatens the
overall quality of emergency care. All emer-
gent cases require timely expert care. With
more patients to see, the attention of an ED’s
staff is spread thin and wait times increase
for those in real need of care. The cost of this
care also weighs heavily on our health care
system. Emergency rooms are an expensive
method of care, forced to cover high over-
head costs from maintaining 24-hour staff
and emergency resources. As consumers, we
harm ourselves by inappropriately using the
emergency room. Developing or maintaining
a relationship with a primary care physician
allows us to manage issues that affect our
long-term well-being, like weight manage-
ment, conditions like asthma, or other chron-
ic illnesses. Primary care providers are the
best source for disease management, which
is essential to helping us establish long-term
solutions for a healthy life.
This is a complex issue, reaching beyond
socioeconomic levels. This spring, national
reports revealed that Medicaid enrollees use
the emergency room almost two times more
Emergency Departments (EDs) pro-
vide an essential community resource for
managing sudden unexpected illnesses and
life-threatening conditions. However, im-
proper use of EDs is a major issue in hos-
pitals across our state. More often, patients
are utilizing EDs for primary or urgent care,
rather than for actual health emergencies.
With our busy schedules, emergency de-
partment care looks like an attractive health
care option in many ways. This care comes
with open-door access, 24-hours a day
and seven days a week. No appointments
are needed and no one is turned away be-
fore having an assessment with a profes-
sional. Furthermore, the quality of modern
Over the years, busy
emergency departments
have filled with more
and more non-emergent
patients, ballooning
costs and threatening the
quality of our emergency
health care. The
Louisiana Department
of Health and Hospitals
is taking a collaborative
approach towards
reducing that threat.