title: ED Utilization by Uninsured and Medicaid Patients after Availability of Telephone Triage.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For emergency departments experiencing crowding and a high percentage of patients leaving without being seen, a telephone triage service can provide other care options for low-acuity patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A nonexperimental pre- and postintervention comparative design was used to measure ED visit volumes from Medicaid and uninsured patients presenting with a low-acuity health care problem. Visit volumes for the 12 months before and 12 months after the initiation of telephone triage were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall low-acuity visit volume increased in the first 12 months of telephone triage availability. However, the proportion of low-acuity Medicaid and uninsured patients seeking ED care decreased. For the first 12 months of operation, telephone triage received 10,055 calls. Sixty percent of the calls (N = 6086) were from uninsured and Medicaid patients. More than 43% of the calls resulted in a self-care decision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A telephone triage service may help decrease ED crowding by communicating other care options to patients with low-acuity health problems.
authors.affiliation: Lubbock, TX. Electronic address: tim.howell@umchealthsystem.com.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Howell
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid; D017057:Medically Uninsured; D013689:Telephone; D013781:Texas; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States
keywords: Crowding; Emergency department; Medicaid; Telephone triage; Uninsured; Utilization