Frequent fliers—more formally referred to as superutilizers—use a wildly disproportionate amount of emergency department resources. A trio of emergency physicians will try to help stem that proverbial tide with this year’s Colin C. Rorrie Jr. Lecture, 10 a.m. Oct. 28. The lecture, “Coordination of Care Through the ED: Influencing Costs, Recidivism, and Health Outcomes,” will feature emergency physicians Stephen Anderson, MD, FACEP, an emergency physician in Seattle and a member of ACEP’s Board of Directors, Chad S. Kessler, MD, MHPE, FACEP, deputy chief of staff at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina, and Maria Raven, MD, MPH, FACEP, of the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Anderson said that the lecture is meant to kick-start the conversation of how EDs deal with superutilizers. That includes knowing patients who frequently use an individual institution and also those who bounce between different hospitals in a given geographic area. Health information exchanges would be a good way to do that—in particular, exchanges could help identify those with mental health or substance-abuse issues.

Richard Quinn is a freelance writer in New Jersey.

Dr. Anderson

Dr. Kessler

Dr. Raven

Coordination of Care Through the ED: Influencing Costs, Recidivism and Health Outcomes
Wednesday, Oct. 28
10 am–10:50 a.m.
Room 210 ABC