Service Delivery Collaboration for the Homeless Population in Contra Costa Regional Medical Center's Emergency Department
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Authors
Thomas, Linda
Issue Date
2017
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Contra Costa County Regional Medical Center is a 166-bed safety net hospital, caring for the indigent. I saw our collective role as the 'water carriers' in a system that needed streamlined collaboration across divisions when it comes to our homeless population. I decided to work with frontline social worker staff who were unable to take care of the homeless patient in a comprehensive way within our Emergency Department (ED), and thus, this patient became a frequent visitor because of this system gap. It was my interest to partner with the Health, Housing, and Homeless Division (H3) and learn about their new streamlined referral system, called Coordinated Entry (CE), which would launch in February 2017. Their goal was to partner with our hospital in communicating how this new service will benefit staff and patients, and my goal was to add outreach teams who would canvas the ED and triage patients to CE services, offering a true warm hand-off. This system delivery collaboration will have a positive impact on staff and patients, and be a cost-effective and safer alternative that will potentially create a depth of services for our homeless patients.