Sherow, Andrew
(2018)
Emergency department diversion via a text message Campaign.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Emergency departments (ED) are being overused. The public health significance of EDs being too crowded includes both health and/or financial consequences for the patients, staff, hospital system, region, community, and tax payers. EDs are overburdened for many reasons, and most are related to what is perceived as an emergency, issues in accessing other care, or revisiting the same ED because of a reoccurring issue.
Campaigns have focused on reducing crowding and the number of unnecessary ED patients, some successful and some not. Multiple interventions focus on different tactics and methods to achieve the results that are desired. These are reviewed in this paper. An emerging communication channel with potential to change behavior related to receipt of health care is text messaging. Text message campaigns have become an excellent channel to communicate to members within a health system.
During the summer of 2017, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health Plan’s Population Health Engagement and Optimization (PHEO) team created a text message campaign to reduce ED visits among a subset of their Medicaid-insured population. The intervention ultimately changed its goals due to the relatively small number of individuals in the target population and the variety of factors beyond text messaging that influence ED utilization. The primary focus is now the introduction and use of existing UPMC resources to reduce ED visits. The campaign is currently being reviewed for approval, with a launch planned April 30, 2018.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
28 June 2018 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
19 April 2018 |
| Approval Date: |
28 June 2018 |
| Submission Date: |
5 April 2018 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
80 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Public Health > Behavioral and Community Health Sciences |
| Degree: |
MPH - Master of Public Health |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
No |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Emergency Department ED ER Text Message Texting SMS Diversion Overuse |
| Date Deposited: |
28 Jun 2018 19:48 |
| Last Modified: |
16 May 2019 18:06 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/34140 |
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