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Patient care

911 Emergency Communication Nurse Triage Reduces EMS Patient Costs and Directs Patients to High-Satisfaction Alternative Point of Care

Isabel Gardett, PhD, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Kristen Miller, JD, Neal Richmond, MD, FACEP, Comilla Sasson, MD, Matt Zavadsky, MS, Mark Rector, Andrew Wilcox, Christopher Olola, PhD

Mar 22, 2015|AEDR 2015 Vol. 3 Issue 1|Original Research

Recent estimates indicate that more than half of all Emergency Department (ED) visits could be avoided, reducing patient costs and increasing satisfaction with care. Since 911 is increasingly the first point of contact for many patients entering the health care system—even those with non-emergency conditions—one potential approach to decreasing emergency costs and ED overcrowding is to reinvent the 911 dispatch center as a clearinghouse for directing patients to alternative care providers. This study presents a cost avoidance analysis of two 911 dispatch centers that...

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