Despite expanded healthcare coverage available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the emergency room (ER) remains a refuge for those unable to visit their primary care physician (PCP) — whether due to lack of access, insurance, or time, according to results from the latest Reducing Avoidable ER Visits Survey by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN). Learn what strategies organizations are using to reduce avoidable ER visits in this executive summary.

In the three years since HIN last administered this survey, health organizations have stepped up their ER discharge follow-up strategies. More than one-third of respondents (31 percent) in 2014 report they contact patients within 24 hours of their ER visit, versus 22 percent of respondents in 2011 who made provider appointments before discharge, and 18 percent who conducted phone follow-ups within two days of a visit.

Click here to download the report today.

Customized reports, including benchmark results by industry sector, are available upon request.

This white paper is an excerpt from 2014 Healthcare Benchmarks: Reducing Avoidable ER Visits, a comprehensive set of metrics from 125 healthcare organizations on their efforts to foster appropriate use of hospital emergency departments. Click here for more information.

Enhanced with more than 50 easy-to-follow graphs and tables, this third edition of comprehensive data points presents year-over-year trends and best practices for engaging ER and hospital staff, primary care physicians, community providers and patients in reducing avoidable ED utilization.

This report provides a wealth of data to identify organizational strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, including the following:

• Prevalence of programs to promote appropriate ER use;
• Top populations contributing to avoidable ER use;
• Presentation characteristics of ER 'high utilizers';
• Tactics to engage primary care physicians in appropriate ER use;
• Patient- and ER staff-level solutions to encourage appropriate ED utilization;
• Tools and technologies to monitor and reduce avoidable ER visits;
• ROI from programs to reduce avoidable ED utilization;
• Sector-specific results from survey respondents;
• The complete August 2014 Reducing Avoidable ER Visits survey tool;