Presence Covenant Medical Center - Community Resource Center

What is it?

The primary focus of the Community Resource Center (CRC) is to reduce potentially avoidable emergency department (ED) visits through intervention while clients are present in the ED. The CRC takes a holistic approach to medical problems and additionally seeks to address unmet social, psychological and spiritual needs of the patient. CRC health navigators can provide direct services that include, but are not limited to: assisting clients in enrolling for health insurance, establishing a medical home, obtaining prescription assistance, securing transportation and educating on community resources. The navigators then refer clients to community partners for other needed services, such as primary care, dental care, health education, mental health or substance abuse treatment, spiritual support, housing or food interventions, discount medication assistance, legal assistance and transportation.

Who is it for?

The CRC was created to serve individuals who may be uninsured or underinsured, unemployed, lacking a primary care physician or medical home, and who frequently utilize the ED. However, CRC services can be accessed by any member of the community.

Why do they do it?

The CRC aims to improve health care outcomes in the community by better focusing available local, state, federal and private resources to serve those who seek hospital care. The CRC can ask the questions that bedside practitioners often do not have time to delve into and coordinates the services that would result in success and health for the client.

Impact

A group of 281 patients from 2015 accounted for a total of 1,392 ED visits in the 6 months prior to the CRC working with them. In the 6 months after they became CRC clients, this group had only accounted for 844 ED visits. This group of super-utilizers reduced their ED visits by 548 visits, a 39 percent reduction.

The individual impact can be even more substantial. One CRC client was frequently utilizing the ED for a number of potentially avoidable reasons. He had a substance abuse problem, he was homeless and he had untreated medical conditions. This client had visited the ED 69 times from November 2013 until the end of 2014. The CRC health navigators made frequent contact with this client throughout 2014. They assisted him with a variety of needs including: treatment for substance abuse, emergency shelter, clothing, food, a new wheelchair, transportation, finding a PCP and eventually finding a higher level of care. He only visited the ED 6 times in 2015, a 92 percent reduction in ED visits.

Contact: Jennifer Compton
Regional Director, Outpatient Services
Telephone: 217-841-4519
Email: jennifer.compton@presencehealth.org