Helpline Calls Associated With Preventable Emergency Department Utilization.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare utilization
• Social determinants of health
• Public health

Background:

• Unmet social needs correlate with increased healthcare use, but data is often not timely or granular.
• The 2-1-1 helpline connects individuals with social services, offering a potential data source for needs assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between 2-1-1 helpline requests and preventable emergency department (ED) visits.
• To compare this association with the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) as a predictor of preventable ED visits.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study linking 2-1-1 requests and ED visits by ZIP code for uninsured and Medicaid-insured patients.
• Negative binomial regression analysis to assess the association of 2-1-1 requests and ADI with preventable ED visits.

Main Results:

• Analysis included 233,146 preventable ED visits and 520,308 2-1-1 requests.
• A 1-SD increase in 2-1-1 requests per 1,000 population was associated with a 3.05-fold increase in preventable ED visits (p<0.001), even after controlling for ADI and other factors.

Conclusions:

• 2-1-1 helpline request volume is a strong indicator of preventable ED utilization.
• Findings can inform targeted social needs interventions by hospital leaders and policymakers in high-need areas.