Current and Future Directions in Healthcare

Mar 26, 2023

Emergency Department avoidance strategies refer to a set of measures and interventions aimed at reducing the number of emergency department visits by individuals who could receive more appropriate care in alternative settings. These strategies aim to improve access to care, reduce healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes.

Curated resources on Emergency Department avoidance strategies include various articles, research studies, guidelines, and reports from reputable sources such as healthcare organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. These resources provide valuable insights into the different approaches, tools, and technologies that can be used to effectively manage patient needs outside of the emergency department setting.

In August of 2022, the Province of Ontario released an updated version of the Plan to Stay Open Report with a focus on system stability and recovery. In this plan, five main tenants are highlighted with strategies aimed at addressing each one:

Preserving hospital capacity
Providing the right care in the right place
Reducing surgical wait times
Easing pressure on Emergency Departments
Expanding Ontario’s health workforce

This news report from CityNews speaks to several frontline staff around current pressures Emergency Departments in Ontario are facing and touches on the extent of the challenges throughout acute care hospitals.

Two areas of focus that have come into the forefront aimed at addressing Emergency department pressures are community-based paramedicine programs and connecting patients with access to urgent consultations.

The community-based paramedicine program is focused on self-management of chronic diseases. Typically, these programs have criteria of those with multiple recent ED visits and / or hospital admissions while living with a chronic disease. In this article, Sarah Turner provides a background and analysis of this model of care in Ontario. Mount Sinai hospital in New York City has also put together a video highlighting the development of a similar model in recent years.

An innovative strategy I feel will continue to gather momentum across the country and even internationally is Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience (SCOPE). This novel program connects primary care practitioners to a multidisciplinary team linking their patients with complex chronic conditions with resources they require via a single point of access. The SCOPE program has resulted in approximately 82% ED diversion rate of calls that would have otherwise resulted in an ED visit.