New care model targets high-utilizing, complex patients, frees up emergency providers to focus on acute care concerns.

Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN, has developed a new model of care, designed to meet the needs of high-utilizing hospital and ED patients with complex medical, social, and behavioral needs.The Coordinated Care Center (CCC) provides easy access to patients with a history of high utilization, and delivers multidisciplinary care in a one-stop-shop format. In one year, the approach has slashed ED visits by 37%, freeing up emergency providers to focus on patients with acute needs. In-patient care stays are down by 25%. The CCC focuses on patients with diagnoses that are primarily medical, such as CHF [congestive heart failure], COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], or diabetes. ED-based clinical coordinators keep an eye out for patients who world be good candidates for the CCC, and facilitate quick transitions when their needs would be better served in that setting. Administrators describe CCC as an ambulatory intensive care unit, with an on-site pharmacist, social worker, psychologist, and chemical health counselor as well as physicians, nurse practitioners, LPNs, and patient navigators--enough personnel to comprise two full care teams. While the model does not pay for itself under current payment models, administrators anticipate that the approach will work well under future payment reforms that focus on total cost of care.