Informing Low-acuity Emergency Department Patients of Non-emergent Healthcare Resources Following Discharge to Decrease Emergency Department Utilization (2)

Summary

The goal of this campaign is to reduce unnecessary visits to a Geisinger emergency department (ED). In this campaign, patients will be assigned to receive or not receive outreach following ED discharge with a low-acuity visit designation. Outreach will occur via a text message the day after discharge from the ED as well as information added to the patient's after visit summary (AVS). Depending on the assigned condition, it will include calls to see their primary care provider (PCP) or use an Intelligent Triage tool. The study will assess whether ED use within the following 120 days differs across patients in different outreach conditions (current standard practice vs contact your PCP vs use Intelligent Triage). It will also examine whether patients follow through on the message-specific calls to action differently across conditions.

Eligibility

Age range

18+ years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

No

Interventions

• Behavioral
  Contact your PCP

  Text messages will be sent and discharge paperwork will be modified to encourage contacting a primary care provider.

• Behavioral
  Use Intelligent Triage

  Text messages will be sent and discharge paperwork will be modified to encourage using Intelligent Triage.

Location