Bridges to Health

Bridges to Health Project Addresses High Utilization of Hospital Emergency Departments for Nonemergent Needs

In June 2010, collaborative partners Pardee Hospital, MAHEC, Access II Care, and The Free Clinics launched a new program that explicitly targets uninsured patients who have utilized hospital emergency departments multiple times during the past year, bringing together the best resources in our community to seek a solution to the problem of over utilization of the emergency department.

Bridges offers patients a drop-in group medical visit once per week at various locations, staffed by a physician, nurse case manager, mental health specialist, and pharmacist.

While TFC’s clinics help to defer patients from inappropriate emergency department utilization and save the hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, there are still patients who continue to inappropriately use the emergency department. This project targets those patients. Bridges to Health patients also have access to all TFC’s specialty clinics and programs, pharmacy, and Medi-Find Prescription Assistance Program.

Patients enrolled based upon specific criteria.

Please call Julie Sabin, RN, or Elizabeth Starling, RN, Bridges to Health case managers, for more information at 828.697.8422.