"Homeless 69 year old woman. Had an issue with drinking and meth. I helped her find temporary housing. I got her into services for her Mental Health. She was in services for over a year. She got on our housing program and was placed in housing off the streets. She has not readmitted to the hospital since our first referral with us on 5/21/2019."
"32 year old woman was high ED utilizer. She would get drunk and suicidal. We got her into detox at least 3 or 4 times. She went to Residential 2 times. She is currently sober and has not been back to detox or the ED for a while now."
This project is in progress and is approximately 51-75% complete, and we are on track with the timelines indicated in our application.
The project successfully reached out to the target population. The patients referred to the program were high utilizers of both the ED and the hospital. In the year before the initial consultation with a CET staff, the referred patients had average 4.85 ED admissions and 0.83 hospital admissions.
In this population, the CET staff were able to identify through screening 303 behavioral health issues. The intervention model did not include a full behavioral health assessment, as it was only an outreach and engagement model. Of the behavioral health issues identified, 74 patients had identified alcohol problems, 69 were positive for depression, 42 presented with opioid use disorder, and 36 had anxiety. Only a small minority presented with psychosis.
Early data appears to show that the Community Engagement Team approach is very promising. The economic model presented in the proposal showed that a 15% reduction in utilization would represent savings that were double the cost of the project.
Initial data is showing a 78% drop in ED utilization in referred patients and an 82% drop in hospital utilization.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the service delivery model. Admission rates of ED patients with behavioral health problems has dropped significantly, and the ability of the CET to engage with patients has been hampered significantly.