A few weeks ago I wrote about how homelessness is one of two top causes of ED overcrowding. Today, let’s take a deeper dive into what experts think may help.
A recent study published last year in Psychiatry Services, a journal of the American Psychiatric Association, followed a cohort of more than 700 homeless individuals over a three-month period, tracking their use of the ED. Over the course of the study, 30% of participants visited the ED one or two times, while 12% visited three or more times, which researchers deemed “high use.”
What researchers determined was that the reasons behind chronic ED use by the homeless were complicated.
Surprisingly, researchers concluded that housing status didn’t play a large of a role in chronic ED use. Homelessness wasn’t a cause in itself. Also, outside services did little to stem visits. However, the situation isn't totally hopeless. They found a possible solution lies in the cooperation of vested interests.
They contend that more coordination between outside services, housing organizations and healthcare providers “may better address the complex medical, housing, and psychosocial needs of chronically homeless individuals.”
“Increased ED utilization was associated with both general medical and psychiatric morbidity and greater use of non-ED services,” researchers wrote. “Thus ED use was related to high need and acuity and was not ameliorated by use of other services.”
So what does better coordination look like? Two recent news stories highlight how EDs and hospitals can better coordinate care with outside organizations to decrease ED use by homeless individuals. While these initiatives appear to be working, it’s still too early to gauge whether they’ll be sustainable in the long-term. But what they do show is how cooperation between outside organizations and healthcare providers can lead to better outcomes for homeless patients.
Finding respite in old motels
“It’s impossible for homeless people to recover from a health crisis when they just go back out onto the street after being discharged from the hospital. They end up returning repeatedly to emergency rooms and hospitals, which are very expensive.”
This story out of Buena Park, CA is a wonderful example of how coordinated care for homeless patients can better serve these individuals and positively impact a hospital’s bottom line.
The Illumination Foundation, a homeless services non-profit, has converted an old motel into a place of refuge for recently discharged patients. A triage center has been set up in the lobby and the rooms have been transformed into recovery facilities, with funding assistance provided by area hospitals and health insurers. Patients stay between two to three weeks and are able to obtain the social services necessary to help move them into more permanent housing. A nurse is even on staff.
And the program, still in its early stages, appears to be cost-effective—to the tune of $2,000 less per day than a hospital stay, which saves hospitals and insurers money. Patients, too, are experiencing positive results.
“Housing first style” housing
“The hospital is paying to get them out of the emergency room and into housing.”
In Chicago, the University of Illinois Hospital has partnered with the Center for Housing Health to provide homeless patients an apartment and a case manager in order to curb chronic ED use. And it seems to be working.
Case managers help coordinate care by scheduling follow-up appointments, which lessen the odds of a return visit to the ED; and the apartments — which cost the hospital a third of what a hospital stay would — lessen the burden of homelessness on the patient and the healthcare system. And that’s not all. So far, with 15 patients in the pilot program, the initiative has helped lower healthcare costs for these patients by 75 percent, while having a positive impact on their health.
What these two programs highlight is how high-quality care doesn’t have to come at the expense of a hospital’s bottom line. What’s evident, is that investments in long-term solutions for the homeless and coordination of care pay off. Hospitals are able to increase the quality of care for all its patients — not just its chronic users who suffer from homelessness or mental and substance abuse issues — and cut costs.
Is your hospital or ED working with an outside organization, or has a cutting-edge initiative it’s employing to counter the chronic use of the ED by the homeless? I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to comment below or drop me a line.
SOURCES:
Psychiatry Services: “Factors Affecting Emergency Department Use by a Chronically Homeless Population”
Kaiser Health News: “Old Motels Get New Life Helping Homeless Heal”
Texas Public Radio: “A Hospital Offers Frequent ER Patients An Out — Free Housing”