By EMS1 Staff
BOSTON — An emergency physicians’ new program is trying to identify patients who regularly hop from one ER to another by sharing data between departments.
WBUR reported that Brigham and Women’s Hospital emergency physician Dr. Scott Weiner’s PreManage ED initiative will help emergency rooms share data to alert hospitals when a patient is regularly visiting emergency rooms.
Weiner said repeat ER patients include those who are addicted to opioids and are looking for multiple prescriptions, or patients with alcoholism who visit several ERs for the same injuries within several hours.
“Cases like this happen all the time,” Weiner said.
The program will help to find better solutions for “high risk and complex patients.”
“MHA strongly endorses the PreManage ED initiative as a solution for identifying and better coordinating care for high risk and complex patients, including patients with substance use disorder and mental health needs,” Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians vice president Anuj Goel said.
Under the new program, doctors treating a patient who has “had six or more emergency room visits within six months, or three ER visits to three different hospitals in 90 days” will receive a notice, according to Weiner.
Weiner said he expects 35 of Massachusetts’s acute care hospitals to be using the program.
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