Informing Low-acuity Emergency Department Patients of Non-emergent Resources (2)

Informing Low-acuity Emergency Department Patients of Non-emergent Healthcare Resources Following Discharge to Decrease Emergency Department Utilization (2)

The goal of this campaign is to reduce unnecessary visits to a Geisinger emergency department (ED). In this campaign, patients will be assigned to receive or not receive outreach following ED discharge with a low-acuity visit designation. Outreach will occur via a text message the day after discharge from the ED as well as information added to the patient's after visit summary (AVS). Depending on the assigned condition, it will include calls to see their primary care provider (PCP) or use an Intelligent Triage tool. The study will assess whether ED use within the following 120 days differs across patients in different outreach conditions (current standard practice vs contact your PCP vs use Intelligent Triage). It will also examine whether patients follow through on the message-specific calls to action differently across conditions.

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