New Program Aims to Reduce ER Visits, Improve Primary Care in Grand Rapids Area
Lindsay Knake
| 3 min read
Lindsay Knake is a brand journalist for Blue Cross B...
Key Takeaways
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan granted Catherine’s Health Center $50,000 to support its Hospital Health Navigator Program, which will place a community health worker in the Trinity Health Emergency Department.
- The community health worker will help patients with complex needs who are uninsured or underinsured transition into primary care and identify affordable health coverage options.
- The program aims to reduce unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations by connecting patients to essential primary care and may be a model for other hospital systems and health care clinics.
Access to primary care is one of the best ways people can stay healthy and keep their health care more affordable.
But for those without insurance or stable housing, access can be a challenge. That’s where Catherine’s Health Center comes in. The Kent County-based Federally Qualified Health Center is launching a new program to connect patients with complex needs at the Trinity Health Grand Rapids Hospital emergency room to the primary care services they need.
“When you have a relationship with a primary care provider or primary care center, you're able to manage your chronic conditions. You feel heard,” said Megan Erskine, CEO of Catherine’s Health Center. “We want people to feel like they have a sense of home and a sense of belonging here.”
Catherine’s Health Center started in 1996 as a free and charitable clinic in a church basement in Northeast Grand Rapids. It now serves about 7,000 patients a year at 12 sites across Kent County. The staff provide primary, behavioral and dental health care to primarily lower income, underinsured and uninsured, but everyone is welcome. Many patients at Catherine’s Health Center have complex needs, which include mental health issues, substance abuse and unstable housing, Erskine said.
To improve access to health care, the health center partners with homeless services organizations, the library and other places across the county to bring services to people where they are.
“Our catch phrase is ‘open doors and open hearts,’” Erskine said. “And no matter where we're at, we're going to deliver compassionate, quality and affordable care.”
Reducing unnecessary ER visits and improving care
Focusing on reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations by connecting patients to essential primary care is the next step Catherine’s Health Center is taking.
The center received a $50,000 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to support their Hospital Health Navigator Program to place a community health worker in the Trinity Health Emergency Department. This person, employed by Catherine’s, will assist patients with complex needs who are uninsured or underinsured in the emergency department who are using the facility as primary or urgent care.
The community health worker will help those patients transition into primary care at Catherine’s Health Center on-site clinic located at Mel Trotter Ministries or elsewhere that offers medical, dental or behavioral health care services Additionally, this person will help patients identify and enroll in affordable health coverage options.
“I see primary care as the center hub or node of the entire health care ecosystem. It is the most cost-effective way to deliver health care,” “And the emergency room is expensive for individuals, it's expensive for taxpayers and it's expensive for systems.”
Catherine’s Health Center may be the first organization in Michigan to provide this service, she added. The community health worker will start their role in late spring. There could be as much as a 60% reduction in emergency department utilization for visits that need primary rather than emergency care thanks to the community health worker.
The new program may be a model for other hospital systems and health care clinics.
“We have had a great partnership with Blue Cross over many years, and a lot of the funding that they provide to us is put towards new projects or innovative projects,” Erskine said. “We're breaking through ceilings to provide better care to people.”
Image: Courtesy of Catherine's Health Center
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