Hospital's program helps frequent flyers

Carlos Danger

Carlos Danger

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Hospitals Target Emergency Room "Super-Utilizers" to Cut Down On Costs

Hospitals target emergency room 'super-utilizers' to cut down on costs | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

In less than two years, Dennis Manners was treated 337 times at University Hospital’s emergency room — sometimes after passing out drunk in the street and being brought in by ambulance.

Usually, it wasn’t an emergency. But Manners nonetheless racked up $626,143 in charges he couldn’t pay.

Then hospital officials stepped in, enrolling Manners in a new program that aims to stop the inappropriate use of the emergency department by such costly “super-utilizers.”

For about $6,000, they found the 54-year-old formerly homeless man a primary-care doctor and a neurologist to treat a seizure disorder, got him into a substance-abuse treatment and helped get him an apartment.
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Really interesting concept. It makes perfect sense from a social and humanitarian perspective but I am not sure it will be financially feasible on a large scale nor if it will make a substantial impact.
 
Chase said:
Really interesting concept. It makes perfect sense from a social and humanitarian perspective but I am not sure it will be financially feasible on a large scale nor if it will make a substantial impact.
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I think it might....this guy may have cost society close to $1M in the previous two years in various ways....

I'm generally a staunch opponent of taxpayer-funded welfare programs but I guess there comes a time where it's just much cheaper to take care of people the right way than to keep hoping that they'll take responsibility for their own lives and do it themselves.

I worked in a busy urban ED years ago, and I remember the hospital giving certain frequent flyers passes for cabs and vouchers for clinics and prescriptions and even paying for detox and rehab....their philosophy was that it was cheaper for them to do that than to keep treating them for free when they'd get brought in drunk and seizing every other day.
 
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Thats really interesting. Working as an emt and also in a hospital in chicago I see alot of frequent flyers coming into my large university hospital. Most of these people know how to use the systems to best get everything they can for themselves. My only worry is that it would encourage people even more to keep coming to the hospital maybe even more frequently saying they want want help with doctors and an apartment, and keep coming in untill they are given what they want.

Sounds like a great idea though, glad to see people actually interested in improving the system and pt care
 
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