Posters
Academic Level (Author 1)
Resident
Discipline/Specialty (Author 1)
Family and Community Medicine
Academic Level (Author 2)
Faculty
Academic Level (Author 3)
Faculty
Discipline/Specialty (Author 3)
Family and Community Medicine
Discipline/Specialty (Author 10)
Family and Community Medicine
Discipline Track
Community/Public Health
Abstract
Emergency rooms are often used as a safety net for patients unable to see their primary care doctor. Past studies have shown that urgent care centers and extended clinic hours proximal to ERs can decrease the financial and resource burden placed on hospitals. By increasing hours of the facilities associated with Knapp Medical Center, including the UTRGV-Knapp Family Medicine clinic in Mercedes and the Mid-Valley Urgent Care, it is predicted that less emergent cases can be handled in the outpatient setting thus giving patients peace of mind that their needs will be met rather than going to an emergency room. The study compared two timeframes: Group 1 (G1) from October 2022 to January 2023, and Group 2 (G2) from October 2023 to January 2024. The ratio of patients referred to the ER by Family Residents' Primary Care Physicians (PCP) was 158 out of 7854 in G1 and 150 out of 8421 in G2. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between the two periods (p1 = 0.0201 vs p2 = 0.0178 [Proportion difference 0.002, p = 0.282]). A full year of data would likely be more beneficial to establish whether the interventions in the study would decrease unnecessary ER visits.
Presentation Type
Poster
Recommended Citation
Pascasio, Angelo Joseph G.; Lopez Alvarenga, Juan C.; and Gomez, Carolina, "Keeping People out of the Emergency Room: Will education of clinic patients on intra-facility resources decrease unnecessary ER visits?" (2024). Research Colloquium. 81.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/colloquium/2024/posters/81
Included in
Keeping People out of the Emergency Room: Will education of clinic patients on intra-facility resources decrease unnecessary ER visits?
Emergency rooms are often used as a safety net for patients unable to see their primary care doctor. Past studies have shown that urgent care centers and extended clinic hours proximal to ERs can decrease the financial and resource burden placed on hospitals. By increasing hours of the facilities associated with Knapp Medical Center, including the UTRGV-Knapp Family Medicine clinic in Mercedes and the Mid-Valley Urgent Care, it is predicted that less emergent cases can be handled in the outpatient setting thus giving patients peace of mind that their needs will be met rather than going to an emergency room. The study compared two timeframes: Group 1 (G1) from October 2022 to January 2023, and Group 2 (G2) from October 2023 to January 2024. The ratio of patients referred to the ER by Family Residents' Primary Care Physicians (PCP) was 158 out of 7854 in G1 and 150 out of 8421 in G2. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between the two periods (p1 = 0.0201 vs p2 = 0.0178 [Proportion difference 0.002, p = 0.282]). A full year of data would likely be more beneficial to establish whether the interventions in the study would decrease unnecessary ER visits.