The hope is that they take their meds, follow the discharge instructions, get follow-ups, and, most important, get better along the trajectory expected by the emergency physician.

Emergency Physician, Tom Scaletta MD, Chair of the Emergency Department and Medical Director of Patient Experience at the Edward Elmhurst Hospital Emergency Department, joined us to talk about SMARTworks® EffectiveResponse, a software that extends the emergency visit beyond the ER. According to Dr. Scaletta, approximately 140 million patients are seen in U.S. ERs each year; 80% of them are discharged to home. The hope is that they take their meds, follow the discharge instructions, get follow-up as suggested, and, most important, get better along the trajectory expected by the emergency physician. However, emergency physicians don’t know if all those things actually take place after discharge unless something goes wrong.

So in response to this, Tom developed EffectiveResponse, an automated ER follow-up system, which is now managed by Standard Register Healthcare and has been rebranded as SMARTworks® EffectiveResponse, a part of their SMARTworks suite of technology solutions. By using automated text messages, EffectiveResponse follows up with discharged patients to be sure they are doing fine and are taking the recommended medications. According to Dr. Scaletta, EffectiveResponse not only facilitates patient safety by identifying patients who may need a return visit to the ER, but it also leads to improved patient satisfaction because patients feel their ER doc is watching over them even after they have been discharged. It is a win-win as we like to say. Watch the video to learn more.

Also, for more information, check out the accompanying blog post!

This video is under BY-ND creative commons.