Isabel talks with Dr. Conrad Fivaz, the clinical director of Priority Solutions, and Gigi Marshall Knight, Emergency Communication Nurse System (ECNS) program administrator. They discuss the goals of secondary triage, the importance of studying low acuity calls, and how ECNS affects emergency dispatchers...
Recent estimates indicate that more than half of all Emergency Department (ED) visits could be avoided, reducing patient costs and increasing satisfaction with care. Since 911 is increasingly the first point of contact for many patients entering the health care system—even those with non-emergency conditions—one potential approach to decreasing emergency costs and ED overcrowding is to reinvent the 911 dispatch center as a clearinghouse for directing patients to alternative care providers. This study presents a cost avoidance analysis of two 911 dispatch centers that...