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Greetings!
Greetings! Welcome to the first issue of the Pacific Hospital
Preservation and Development Authority (PHPDA) Update. Published quarterly, the
update is designed to provide our key stakeholders in King County with current
information on our projects and evaluation efforts. Additional information is
available on our website. We welcome feedback. We remain committed
to sharing what we learn in our research and evaluation efforts to support
changes at the system and program levels in our community.
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Improving Access for Limited English Proficient Patients
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Patient Navigators guide pediatric patients & families
Patient Navigators are making health care news these days, but what do we know about their effectiveness in improving patient and provider satisfaction and clinical outcomes? The PHPDA is partnering with Seattle Children's Hospital to demonstrate the value of patient navigators for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) families in a pediatric hospital setting. Learn more.
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Patient Story:
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Seattle Children's is providing medical care for an 11-year-old Hispanic boy with cerebral palsy and developmental delay as well as systematic juvenile arthritis. He lives with his parents in Eastern Washington, and his primary care
clinic is located about an hour from their home. He has struggled to control
his arthritis with frequent arthritis flare-ups characterized by daily high
fevers, pain and lack of mobility. The importance of taking all medications as
prescribed was discussed with the family several times as well as the possible
consequences (including potential death) for not doing so. In early 2009, the
family missed two scheduled admissions and reported stopping all prescribed
arthritis medications.
The patient navigator was able to facilitate communication
between the family, medical team, and local clinic staff in Eastern Washington to
schedule appointments and arrange transportation for the family.
At
their last clinic appointment at Seattle Children's, the treating physician was
pleased to confirm that for the first time in the last two years, the patient
does not show signs of arthritis, which leads her to believe that it is finally
under control. Everyone is delighted with this outcome.
Some details of this case have been altered to protect the patient identity. Read
more about this story here.
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Identifying Credible Measures of the Problem
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Costs of Unnecessary Emergency Department Use by the
Uninsured
How do we measure the cost savings from keeping
patients out of an Emergency Department? The PHPDA commissioned a
study of Emergency Department use in late 2008 to determine if there were quantifiable
savings from caring for uninsured specialty care patients outside of hospital
emergency departments. Another study of emergency room visits
had concluded that 1/3 of hospital emergency department
visits could be provided in other settings, such as
outpatient specialty or primary care clinics. Although local data was
limited, Phase 1 of the study identified a 40-60% decrease in the use of the
emergency department use for communities with a "project access" model. Phase 2
of the study looked at year-end financial filing data for 13 King County
hospitals in the Department of Health database. About 14,300 emergency room
visits by low-income, uninsured persons in King County result in close to $20
million in Emergency Department charges. About 70% (on average) of uninsured
patients treated in area hospitals are admitted through the Emergency
Department. Learn more.
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Funding Specialty Care
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By the numbers
As one of our outcome measures, the PHPDA tracks the number of patients referred to specialists who successfully receive appointments. Our grantees -- Pacific Medical Centers and King County Project Access -- have increased the rate of successful appointments every year. By the mid-2009, the average percentage of successful appointments for both grantees had increased from 42% to as high as 87%. More information about Specialty Care Access can be found here. |
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About the Tower
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The PHPDA was chartered in 1981 to operate the former US Public Health
Service Hospital surplused by the Federal Government. Its charge was to
provide the best possible health care to the traditional patients of
the US Public Health Service Hospital -- including low-income,
uninsured individuals. Originally opened as the regional U.S. Marine Hospital in 1933, this 14-story art deco-style tower was designed by Seattle architects
Charles Bebb, Carl Gould and John Graham. It is one of Seattle's most
distinctive landmarks and has been designated a Seattle Historical
Landmark and is on the list of National Historic Places.
In 1998, the PHPDA leased the Tower building to Wright Runstad, which
in turn subleased to Amazon.com. Lease revenues from this partnership have helped the PHPDA fund more than $2 million each year in specialty care and interpreter services for the uninsured in our community. We are optimistic this relationship will continue.
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About Us
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The
mission of the PHPDA is to champion effective health care for the vulnerable and
disadvantaged in our community.
We work in partnership with other community organizations to improve health
care access for people with no health insurance, particularly those who need
specialty care. We support culturally appropriate health care, and we serve as
a steward in the use of lease revenues and grants to improve health care
access. You can learn more about our work at www.phpda.org.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Baker Aragon, Executive DirectorPacific Hospital Preservation and Development Association 
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