The challenge we were solving

Frequent, repeated use of hospital emergency services – often by the same individuals – is a widespread challenge that puts pressure on healthcare systems worldwide. In Portugal, this problem is no exception.

To better understand and manage this issue, Hospital Garcia de Orta (HGO) and ACES Almada-Seixal created the High Users Resolution Group (GRHU) in 2016 – a multidisciplinary team of nurses, doctors, and social workers focused on citizens with 10 or more ER visits per year.

The challenge: develop targeted, person-centered interventions to reduce unnecessary ER use while improving care coordination and patient safety.

Project partners

Project goals

  1. Analyze care pathways of high-frequency ER users across both health and social care systems.
  2. Evaluate the effectiveness and value of GRHU’s intervention plan.
  3. Use a value-based healthcare lens to assess both outcomes and costs.
  4. Provide data-driven evidence to inform future interventions and policy.

Our role

With our expertise in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, VOH.CoLAB collaborated with the GRHU team to:

  • Support the analysis of ER data collected from Hospital Garcia de Orta;
  • Help measure the impact of the intervention on patient outcomes and system costs;
  • Contribute to the evaluation of the GRHU model as a value-based care initiative.

Lead researcher at VOH

Ana Rita Londral, PhD

Executive Director

Project outcomes and impact

  • Mapped the health and social care pathways of high users of emergency services.
  • Provided a data-informed evaluation of the GRHU team’s intervention approach.
  • Identified key patterns and insights to improve coordination and reduce repeat ER visits.
  • Strengthened the case for targeted, multidisciplinary care models to reduce system burden and improve safety for frequent ER users.

Publications

  • Gonçalves, S., von Hafe, F., Martins, F., Menino, C., Guimarães, M., Mesquita, A., & Londral, A. (2022). Case management intervention of high users of the emergency department of a Portuguese hospital: A before–after design analysis. BMC Emergency Medicine, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-022-00716-3