February 6, 2017 – Win-Win

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Anchor lead: Taking a comprehensive approach to complex patients helps everyone, Elizabeth Tracey reports

‘Super user’ is the term used to describe people who make frequent use of the emergency department and are often hospitalized and rehospitalized. Now a Johns Hopkins program headed by Scott Berkowitz, senior director for accountable care, has not only helped reduce ED use and readmissions to the hospital, it’s resulted in greater satisfaction all around.

Berkowitz: We’ve received really exciting feedback from patients who’ve participated in the program and found it to be quite beneficial.  We have stories that we have online on our J-Chip website. And we also have stories from our care team members who are community health workers or others who are sometimes brought into these positions from the community and had conditions previously where they were challenged and are now those who are helping to team up with us in terms of combating some of those conditions and understanding the local needs of the community.  :27

Berkowitz says the community health workers are part of the all-encompassing team who care for the patient, where the patient is at the center. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.