Informing Low-acuity Emergency Department Patients of Non-emergent Resources

Geisinger Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Emergency Service, Hospital

Treatments: Behavioral: Information about healthcare resources

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06350266

2024-0183

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this campaign is to reduce unnecessary visits to a Geisinger emergency department (ED)/encourage patients with high acuity visits to follow up with an appropriate Geisinger provider. In this campaign, patients will be assigned to receive or not receive outreach following ED discharge that is aligned with the goal. Outreach will occur via a text message, as well as information added to the patient's after visit summary, and will includecalls to action to see their Geisinger CMSL PCP either in person or virtually. The study will assess whether ED use differs across patients in different outreach conditions. It will also examine whether patients follow through on the message-specific calls to action in the messages differently across conditions.

Enrollment: 6,242 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• >= 18 years of age
• Geisinger ED visit rated as low acuity (L4 or L5)
• Discharged from Geisinger ED in past 24 hours

Exclusion criteria

• Cannot be contacted via the communication modality being used in the study (i.e., SMS), due to insufficient/missing contact information in the EHR or because the patient opted out
• Admitted to hospital
• Already included in intervention in past 365 days

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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6,242 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

This arm will receive no intervention outside of usual care.

Other Healthcare Resources

Experimental group

Description:

This arm will receive text messages suggesting alternatives to seeking care at a Geisinger emergency department such as seeing their Geisinger CMSL primary care provider in person or virtually (telehealth). Text suggesting these alternatives may also be included in a modified discharge paperwork packet.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Information about healthcare resources