nice take, Zain. lots of good points about having a better experience, but I disagree that ER should be the place for people who are stable enough to fill out questionnaires that would put them in a queue. putting in effort to tech enable primary care/UC services is much higher yield from cost perspective and better utilization of resources on a population level. the health systems are not incentivized to make this happen in FFS, unfortunately. there is also another point about ER physicians getting burned out because they are handling so many pts who inappropriately self-triaged themselves, eg patients using them for PCP-level complaints because pts simply don't have a PCP or cannot get in with one.
I agree with you that primary care would be a better place to put money. But we have to move forward incrementally. One big thing right now is patients don't know they need to go to the ER or just wait for their PCP. I think there are cases when someone is stable enough to fill out a questionnaire and should be seen in an ER. The questionnaire's purpose is to lessen the ER load, because we know not everything is an emergency but the patients do not.
If health systems are smart, add an online screening tool that gives you the option of their urgent care (with wait time and appointment), virtual visit urgent care, or do not pass go and head directly to the ER (with est. time and text notifications). If we're getting really crazy, add in the estimated costs.
Also, one final question... Why no option to fax in the information?!
nice take, Zain. lots of good points about having a better experience, but I disagree that ER should be the place for people who are stable enough to fill out questionnaires that would put them in a queue. putting in effort to tech enable primary care/UC services is much higher yield from cost perspective and better utilization of resources on a population level. the health systems are not incentivized to make this happen in FFS, unfortunately. there is also another point about ER physicians getting burned out because they are handling so many pts who inappropriately self-triaged themselves, eg patients using them for PCP-level complaints because pts simply don't have a PCP or cannot get in with one.
I agree with you that primary care would be a better place to put money. But we have to move forward incrementally. One big thing right now is patients don't know they need to go to the ER or just wait for their PCP. I think there are cases when someone is stable enough to fill out a questionnaire and should be seen in an ER. The questionnaire's purpose is to lessen the ER load, because we know not everything is an emergency but the patients do not.
If health systems are smart, add an online screening tool that gives you the option of their urgent care (with wait time and appointment), virtual visit urgent care, or do not pass go and head directly to the ER (with est. time and text notifications). If we're getting really crazy, add in the estimated costs.
Also, one final question... Why no option to fax in the information?!
I love everything about this, especially the part about the estimated cost! That is such a no-brainer to me.
I am choosing to ignore the last part of your comment.