When a nonprofit healthcare provider in Austin, Texas, ran a check on its patients’ emergency room (ER) visits between 2003 and 2008, they discovered a group of 9 patients who had amassed almost 2,700 ER visits in just the six years under review.  The nonprofit, Integrated Care Collaboration, works with people uninsured and of low income.

Ann Kitchen, Integrated Care’s executive director, told the Travis County Healthcare District board last week the intent of the study was to determine who is using ERs and to find solutions to minimize such a costly form of medical care.  Emergency room visits average $1,000 in Austin and patients in the Integrated Care system get their medical care paid via government-funded programs that include Medicare and Medicaid.  Charges for the 2,678 ER visits involving these nine patients alone cost approximately $3 million.

Five of the patients in question are women, of an average age of 40.  Four are men whose average age is 50.  Three of them are homeless, seven have been diagnosed with mental health disorders, and eight of them struggle with drug abuse issues.

The University Medical Center at Brackenridge is the busiest ER in the Austin area.  Dr. Christopher Ziebell, chief of the hospital’s emergency department, says the matter is ‘pretty significant’ and suggests referrals to mental health programs and primary care physicians for the patients who rely heaviest on the hospital’s ER services.

Ziebell says his hospital sees patients with a variety of medical complaints and that patients suffering from mental illness experience a great deal of anxiety, which often presents as chest pain, one likely reason they turn to the ER for immediate medical attention.