Valued Voice

The WHA Information Center (WHAIC) updated its Potentially Avoidable Emergency Department Visits Dashboard to include 2023 Medicare data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), giving the dashboard the ability to trend five years of data (2019-2023). Since 2019, WHAIC has been a Certified Qualified Entity (QE) under the CMS Qualified Entity Certification Program. 

An emergency department (ED) visit is considered potentially avoidable when the care provided may have been more appropriately managed by a primary care practitioner. Accessing the dashboard can help hospitals understand patterns in avoidable ED visits and design outreach or care coordination programs for frequent ED users with non-emergent needs. Identifying and reducing avoidable ED Visits can result in significant savings for hospitals.

For more information, contact the WHA Information Center.