Southern Cal Keeps Searching for Ways to Get Patients Out of the ED and into Urgent Care

Visits to emergency rooms continue to go up as hospital admissions drop in southern California, suggesting that either many of those flocking to the ED don’t need to be there or patients who need beds aren’t getting them, according to a new series of articles published in the Whittier Daily News. Either way, it would seem wider, acuity-appropriate use of urgent care resources would reduce the volume while increasing efficiency of care. Another solution being tested: mobile integrated healthcare units rolled out by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.  “The goal,” one of the articles states, “is to see if a ‘healthcare on wheels’ model can help crowded emergency departments—which in southern California saw a 27% increase in patients from 2010 to 2016—by steering 911 callers toward urgent cares or other options.” Organizers of the that effort are also calling on area urgent care centers to extend their hours, and imploring insurers to educate their plan members on the relative cost of covered services. In addition, a bill introduced in the state legislature in January would allow ambulances to take patients with non–life-threatening mental health issues to urgent care centers.