Cooper Advanced Access Initiative turns episodic care into a lifetime of care for Cooper patients.
CONTACT: Wendy Marano
Cooper University Health Care
marano-wendy@cooperhealth.edu
856.382.6463
Cooper emergency room staff takes care of 76,000 patient visits each year and many of the patients who make these visits do not have primary care physicians, or insurance. Seeing the opportunity to improve the health care of the uninsured and underinsured individuals, a team of Cooper innovators developed a plan to help these patients join the ranks of insured individuals and to receive preventive and routine health care. This team of innovators launched the Advanced Access Initiative including members of the Urban Health Institute, Emergency Room, and Patient Financial Services.
Since December 2013, a daily report has been generated of every patient who is discharged from the ED and who does not have a PCP, regardless of insurance. The report then goes to the Urban Health Institute call center team who calls to ask each patient, “Can we help you in scheduling a follow-up appointment?”
“We found that most of the patients in this workflow are uninsured and Medicaid eligible,” says Evan Gaston, Program Manager, Clinical Innovation, Urban Health Institute, on the number of patients who are now insured due to this program. “Our ED is referring patients to internal medicine, turning episodic visits by patients into lifetime customers of routine care.”
Patients without insurance are offered a “no cost” visit in the Urban Health Institute’s Cooper Advanced Care Center and are scheduled to meet with a certified financial registrar.
As of December 2013 through early April of this year, 188 patient visits have occured in the Cooper Advanced Care Center through this program.
