University of Chicago Medical Center to decide which patients ED will treat
Patient Safety Monitor Alert, February 11, 2009
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In an effort to cut costs, the University of Chicago Medical Center's (U of C) emergency department (ED) will soon be more selective of its patients, reports The Chicago Tribune. The U of C announced yesterday that it would be eliminating 450 jobs as part of a restructuring project that will save $100 million. Part of this project includes changing how ED patients are triaged. U of C currently reports that 40% of the 80,000 patients who visit its ED each year could be seen elsewhere.
This new plan calls for the ED to continue to treat the sickest patients, but send those patients with cuts, bruises, and other less severe conditions to community hospitals and primary care physicians for treatment. In the past, U of C physicians would treat patients and then educate them about other community options for care. Moving forward, the ER is being restructured so that patients receive this evaluation and advice prior to being treated.
On February 6, the chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Medicine stepped down and the head of the emergency department is also stepping down, reports the paper. Critics of this plan for the U of C's ED say that it runs the risk of turning away patients who are in need of emergency care even after they have been evaluated.
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