Value and Quality Innovations in Acute and Emergency Care

Access to acute and emergency care is essential when we are ill or injured, but the costs are significant. How can we make services more efficient and effective? This thought-provoking text provides twenty case studies detailing successful innovations to enhance value, including telehealth, observation medicine, high utilizer programs, and the use of informatics to improve clinical decision support. A detailed history of system developments over the last fifty years in the US and internationally is provided, and subjects including measurement and quality improvement, volume versus value based care, and emergency department crowding are discussed. This book is an ideal way for emergency physicians and healthcare managers to explore new ideas and enhance the quality of care in their area.

Jennifer L. Wiler MD, MBA, FACEP is a board certified emergency physician, Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Co-Founder and Director of the University of Colorado CARE Innovation CenterTM, and Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Business. She has been appointed to numerous national committees including the American Medical Association RBRVS Updates Committee (RUC), is Past Chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) EM Practice Committee, and past Board member of the Colorado Medical Society. She is a national expert who has authored a number of publications on healthcare policy, access, payment policy, and quality.

Jesse M. Pines, MD, MBA, MSCE is a board-certified emergency physician, the Director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Policy Research and a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy and Management at the George Washington University, Washington DC. He is a national thought leader in emergency care and health policy and leads Urgent Matters (www.urgentmatters.org), a program that disseminates best practices in acute and emergency care. He is author of over 240 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, Health Affairs, Circulation, and Annals of Emergency Medicine and has contributed to TIME magazine, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal.

Michael J. Ward, MD, MBA is a board-certified emergency physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a Ph.D. candidate in Operations Management at the University of Cincinnati. Dr Ward is a recipient of grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, studying the intersection of operational challenges and the delivery of high quality emergency care for patients with time-sensitive emergencies.