Kentucky leverages HIE to target ER ‘frequent fliers’

With an eye toward reigning in state healthcare costs, Kentucky officials are looking to its health information exchange (HIE) to help providers target emergency room (ER) super utilizers, or "frequent fliers."

When analyzing its patient population, Kentucky found that during one year, 350,000 Medicaid recipients used ERs at a cost of $341 million. A little more than half of these users visited the ER just one time while almost 45,000 patients went more than four times. In all, about 4,400 Medicaid recipients utilized the ER 10 or more times, costing the system $34 million, reports GNC.

The state identified a diverse group of 16 hospitals and implemented an alert system within Kentucky HIE to notify providers when a super utilizer enters a clinical setting. Coordinated care teams are alerted as well, and they are charged with reaching out to the patient to address his or her issues, and then provide treatment.

While the results are not yet in on this initiative, John Langefeld, MD, chief medical officer for the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services, told GNC that the project could lead to improved communications across all stakeholders and connections among historically disparate data sets. This, in turn, enables better clinical decision making

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