Working Together to Connect Care: a metropolitan tertiary emergency department and community care program.

Conclusion It is expected that data regarding the number of ED presentations, potential fiscal savings and client outcomes will be available in 2017.What is known about the topic? Frequent attendance at EDs is a global issue and although the number of 'super users' is small compared with non-frequent users, the presentations are high. People in the frequent attendee group will often seek care from multiple EDs for, in the main, mental health issues and substance abuse. Furthermore, frequent ED users are vulnerable and experience higher mortality, hospital admissions and out-patient visits than non-frequent users. Aggressive and assertive outreach, intense coordination of services by integrated care teams, and the need for non-medical resources, such as supportive housing, have positive outcomes for this group of people.What does this paper add? This study uses international research findings in an Australian setting to provide a testing of the generalisability of an assertive and collaborative ED and community case management approach for supporting people who frequent a metropolitan ED.What are the implications for practitioners? The chronicling of a process undertaken to affect change in a health care setting supports practitioners when developing processes for this cohort across different ED contexts. PMID: 28248631 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research