Emergency Department Linkage to Care for Patients Experiencing Homelessness
Denver Health and Hospital Authority
Summary
In an effort to improve access to primary care at time of discharge, patients who are homeless will be given either enhanced follow up through a street medicine team or routine follow up in clinic.
Description
Patients who experience homelessness frequently utilize the ED, but lack follow up primary care. In an effort to augment access to post-ED primary care, the investigators propose a quasi-experimental equivalent time sample study in which patients fitting certain diagnostic and inclusion criteria are allocated to either a) a referral to the Comprehensive Care Clinic at Denver Health, or b) a referral to Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) Stout Street medicine clinic. The street medicine clinic aims to lower barriers to access by locating patients on the street and providing primary care…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: 1. adult (≥18 years of age) DHMC ED patient, 2. currently unsheltered, defined as living on the streets, in a vehicle, or in another place not fit for human habitation, 3. anticipating ED discharge, with 4. a diagnosis listed below that requires short-term follow up: * COPD or asthma exacerbation * Bacterial or viral pneumonia * CHF with volume overload * SSTI * Dehydration requiring IV fluids * Hyperglycemia secondary to DM * Frostbite * First- and second-degree burns * Bacterial ENT infections * Diabetic foot infection * Traumatic head i…
Interventions
- BehavioralStreet medicine follow up
This intervention will use electronic health record builds to automatically send a referral to a street medicine clinic, who will attempt to contact the patient within 2 weeks.
Location
- Denver Health Medical CenterDenver, Colorado