The document discusses the challenges faced by emergency departments (EDs) due to increasing patient volumes and the importance of patient follow-up to improve satisfaction and care efficiency. It highlights automation as a solution for EDs to manage follow-ups effectively, resulting in higher patient satisfaction scores and enhanced care management. The implementation of such follow-up systems has shown to reduce observation admissions and better identify patients needing extra care.

1. AUTOMATING EMERGENCY
DEPARTMENT PATIENT FOLLOW-UP
AN EASY WAY FOR EDs TO IMPROVE SATISFACTION, CARE AND EFFICIENCY
CHALLENGES
Increasing volume Reimbursement Attention to satisfaction
Prediction for when
CMS will implement
ED-CAHPS surveys 4:1 2015
Number of patients
who visit an ED for
every patient admitted
to hospital
36% of inpatient stays of one
day or less were found by
CMS to have an improper
payment rate - justification for
the Two-Midnight Rule3
12 MILLION
Additional Medicaid
beneficiaries are expected
by 2016 as a result of the
Affordable Care Act4
40% increase in the
likelihood of Medicaid
patients to use the ED as
compared to similar patients
not enrolled in Medicaid5
Increase in demand for
ED services in the past
fifteen years1
77% of ED physicians say
their facility is not adequately
prepared for significant
increase in patient volume2
34%
SOLUTION AUTOMATING PATIENT FOLLOW-UP
CHECK Follow-up with patients to ensure they are progressing appropriately and are satisfied with their care experience
ENGAGE Instantly alert providers to changes in patient well-being and to questions about post-discharge care
MANAGE Identify super-utilizer patients for extra attention to more efficiently manage their care
RESULTS OF IMPLEMENTING PATIENT FOLLOW-UP
99th Patients called
50%
28th
Patients not called
Change in Press Ganey percentile ranking for
ED patients who were contacted post-discharge
compared to those who were not7
@
Satisfaction increases are similar regardless
of whether patients are contacted by email
or by phone8
Reduction in observation
admissions from the ED9
BENEFITS OF SMARTworks® EffectiveResponse
EDs that automate patient follow-up improve:
Satisfaction scores Patient care Organizational efficiency
To learn more about SMARTworks® EffectiveResponse,
visit www.standardregister.com/effectiveresponse.
and wellness
72% of ED physicians
report feeling significant
pressure to excel in the area
of patient satisfaction2
48% of post-discharge
patients found to have
medication adherence issues6
1Health, United States, 2012 with Special Feature on Emergency Care. CDC, May 2013 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus12.pdf#088 Accessed June 2014.
22014 ACEP Polling Survey Results. American College of Emergency Physicians. Alexandria, VA. April 2014.
378 Fed. Reg. at 27647
4Congressional Budget Office, “CBO’s May 2013 Estimate of the Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage,” Table 1. http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43900-2013-05-ACA.pdf
5Taubman SL, Allen HL, Wright BJ, Baicker K, Finkelstein AN. Medicaid increases emergency-department use: evidence from Oregon's Health Insurance Experiment. Science. 2014;343(6168):263-8.
6Weisman DS, Bashir L, Mehta A, et al. A medical resident post-discharge phone call study. Hosp Pract (1995). 2012;40(2):138-46.
7Guss DA, Gray S, Castillo EM. The impact of patient telephone call after discharge on likelihood to recommend in an academic emergency department. J Emerg Med. 2014;46(4):560-6.
8Patel PB, Vinson DR. Physician e-mail and telephone contact after emergency department visit improves patient satisfaction: a crossover trial. Ann Emerg Med. 2013;61(6):631-7.
9Scaletta T. An Automated Wellbeing and Service Follow-up Solution That Facilitates ED Case Management. Presented at the 25th Annual National Forum on Quali-ty Improvement in Health Care. December 8-11, 2013, Orlando, Florida.