(U. of C.) Program links uninsured patients to clinics

U. of C. tries new approach to uninsured

Non-emergency visits run up hospital costs

By Bruce Japsen Tribune staff reporter

Known around the world for teaching the latest medicine and conducting cutting edge research, the University of Chicago Hospitals is taking on yet another mission: educate the uninsured on how to get quality medical care without showing up in its expensive emergency room.

In any hospital, the emergency room is typically the priciest setting for care. But at an academic center like University of Chicago, it can be 60 percent more expensive than it would be at a community hospital because teaching facilities also train future doctors and conduct research.


So when patients like James Kinney end up in the U. of C. emergency room for a pulled muscle, which could have been treated at a nearby clinic or community hospital for a fraction of the price, it adds a staggering amount to everybody's health-care costs.

Kinney, a 64-year-old uninsured electrician, came to the hospital when he developed excruciating pain in his hip. He was treated but also referred to a new program to help him get follow-up care and develop a relationship with other doctors and clinics.

"I was not aware of where else I could go," Kinney said. "I could hardly take the pain."

Kinney is like millions of Americans across the country who unwittingly turn to the hospital emergency room because they don't know their options, don't have insurance or are overwhelmed by a health-care system that has difficulty explaining how it all works.

A clinic visit might cost $100, while an emergency room stop costs about $1,200, most of which is absorbed by the hospital. Extrapolated across more than 200 of the nation's major academic medical centers and thousands of similar experiences at each facility each year, costs for treating patients in teaching hospital emergency rooms easily runs into billions of dollars a year, these hospitals say.

Rather than blame the thousands of uninsured patients, the hospital is taking a unique approach: Employees in its emergency room are educating their patients after treatment begins.

In University of Chicago's "Healthy Community Access Program," staff at the emergency room link patients to a primary-care doctor often closer to their home. They even have the ability to schedule follow-up appointments in designated slots at affiliated clinics.

The idea is for the patient to avoid a long emergency room wait while at the same time find a "medical home" so they get regular, preventive care that can be handled by dozens of other outpatient options more quickly, effectively and closer to their home. Staff members are on duty between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily, and the hospital hopes to expand the service to 24 hours.
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