Improving Health Care Utilization

The HealthConnect Hub provides value throughout our community in a variety of ways - including improving health care utilization that lowers costs. The hub achieves this by encouraging participants to seek out the correct care for their conditions, and to rely on emergency services for more urgent needs.

Figure 1

Comparing clients referred to HealthConnect to those who are enrolled in the program provides interesting insights. Participants decreased their average emergency department visit from 4.5 visits a person to 3.6, while referred individuals increased from 3.8 to 4.0 over the same time period.

Figure 2

The second chart compares who sought outpatient care (mental health, specialty and primary care) among enrolled and referred individuals as well. The graph demonstrates that enrolled participants received outpatient care at a much higher rate than those who were referred but not enrolled.

These two charts demonstrate that the HealthConnect Hub encourages participants to seek out the correct care for their conditions, as shown by the decrease in ED visits and increase in outpatient care. These trends align with the goals of the hub and support the appropriate usage of different care types.

The long-term impact of the HealthConnect Hub is jointly improving participants’ ability to navigate care systems, which also helps ensure that healthcare resources are available to the correct individuals. Learn more about the value of the hub on our website.