Office-based patient education decreases non-emergent emergency department visits

Emergency department (ED) utilization for non-emergent conditions is costly and inefficient. We evaluated whether a simple office-based intervention could encourage patients with non-emergent conditions to be seen in the office instead of in the ED. The study compared ED utilization of patients of the intervention family medicine clinic to those of the nearby internal medicine clinic. The intervention consisted of educational posters in the family medicine clinic and follow-up letters after non-emergent ED visits. We measured ED use for the two clinics before, during, and after the intervention. We found a statistically significant decrease in ED utilization for the patients of the intervention clinic. For the intervention office with approximately 1100 patient encounters per month, this resulted in a reduction of approximately 40 ED visits per month. If these results are replicated, this simple intervention could result in cost savings and more efficient patient care.