University of Illinois Health Launches EPIC Program to Prevent Readmissions

Chicago-based University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System has announced a new program to prevent return emergency department visits and hospital readmissions.

The program, called Emergency Department Patient Interdisciplinary Care, aims to coordinate care for patients at high risk for returning to the ED or inpatient care, thereby improving health outcomes and lowering healthcare costs. Under EPIC, a team of providers will use electronic medical records to identify ED patients who have had two or more hospital admissions, have two or more chronic diseases and have five or more medications, as these factors increase the risk for poor health outcomes, according to the report.


The EPIC team will case manage patients, addressing both social and medical needs, for 30, 60 or 90 days based on their complexity during the transition from ED to primary care. Other aspects of the program include the following:

•    Home visits by community health workers
•    Navigators to guide complex patients through the health system
•    Home-based medication reconciliation
•    Online care coordination plans that direct ED staff to specific medical and social interventions

The EPIC program, which was developed by a team of clinicians and researchers from the University of Illinois Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, Social Work and Pharmacy, has the potential to save Illinois Medicaid more than $4 million for approximately 550 patients, according to the report.

More Articles on Hospital Readmissions:

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Lowering Readmission Rates Through Retail Clinic Partnerships

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