Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Room Visits: Strategies To Discourage Inappropriate Use and Reduce Preventable Visits

Summary: When primary care isn't available, several proxy healthcare services can sometimes fill the bill for certain conditions, helping to reduce the number of avoidable emergency room visits, explains Sara Gray, senior manager of emergency services at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado. Ms. Gray describes two important steps hospitals can take when discharging patients to keep those patients from seeking post-discharge care in the ER, and suggests a hospital-SNF partnership to reduce preventable ER visits by SNF patients. Ms. Gray shared Kaiser's three-pronged approach to reducing inappropriate and avoidable ED use during "Reducing Unnecessary Emergency Room Visits: Strategies To Discourage Inappropriate Use and Reduce Preventable Visits," a 45-minute webinar on June 9, 2010.