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A team of Intermountain researchers, led by Todd Allen, MD, was recently awarded a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for approximately $300,000 to study the proportion, causes, and outcomes of emergency department and urgent care center visits at Intermountain. Researchers aim to identify potentially preventable events that lead to these visits — such as failures in outpatient care — which may help providers reduce how often people seek emergency care, and ultimately lead to improved care and lower costs.
By rapidly applying what is learned through evidence-based solutions, Intermountain intends to help patients seek care from the right place and receive high quality care at an affordable cost.
“It’s only through proper accounting and classification of problems that we can discover solutions that improve patient care and deliver the best medical result at an affordable cost,” says Dr. Allen.
The study will include adults and children and will be conducted in emergency departments and urgent care centers across the Intermountain care delivery system. Clinical experts from Intermountain’s Clinical Programs, the Office of Research, and the Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Research will participate in the study.
The primary endpoint of the study will be the incidence rates of causes for failures in outpatient care leading to potentially avoidable emergency department and urgent care visits. The secondary endpoints will include:
This research initiative will result in three critical outputs:
Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based, not-for-profit system of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a Medical Group with some 1,500 employed physicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible®, Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in clinical quality improvement and in efficient healthcare delivery. For more information about Intermountain, visit intermountainhealthcare.org, read our blogs at intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs, connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/intermountain and on Facebook at facebook.com/intermountain.