Want to Reduce Avoidable Emergency Department Visits by High-Utilizers?

Health systems are focused on developing alternatives to the emergency department (ED) for patients with non-acute and chronic health concerns. Such approaches may involve increased access to primary care, but they often fail without community engagement or care coordination to overcome societal barriers to care. Researchers evaluated outcomes for patients enrolled in a federally funded multidisciplinary program that enrolled high-utilizers (adults with 2 or more ED visits within the prior 6 months) and provided social, medical, and behavioral care, either in the home or at a homeless shelter.

Propensity score matching was used to compare outcomes for 406 patients enrolled in the program and 3396 controls. In the 6-month period after enrollm…