In my experience, no patient wants to go to the emergency room. There is usually a lot of waiting and it is costly: ED visits cost 12 times more than an office visit and 10 times more than an urgent care visit1. Additionally, studies suggest that as many as 60% of ED visits are patients with at least one chronic condition, and a large number of these visits are preventable with high-quality primary care. Patients with chronic health conditions need access to proactive and well-coordinated primary care teams to ensure that their conditions are well managed2. We all know that keeping patients out of the ED means we sometimes work that patient in to a busy schedule, but more often it involves teams managing chronic health conditions well. At C3, we are thinking about ways to help our practices achieve the goal of reducing these visits over time.
Menu