Optimizing Emergency Aftercare with Mobile Video Prescriptions

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): healthEworks' mission is to improve discharge health education for the 100 million patients discharged from U.S. emergency departments (EDs) annually. healthEworks aims to accomplish this goal by creating and distributing Video Prescriptions - concise videos specific to the common discharge diagnoses patients receive in the ED. These videos feature Dr. Christina Johns, a pediatric emergency physician who specializes in delivering health information on camera. healthEworks' service combines this specialized video content with a HIPAA-compliant information data management system that electronically delivers the video prescriptions to patients at time of ED discharge. The videos are designed for, and delivered to, small-screen mobile devices such as smartphones or laptop computers so patients can view their discharge information whether in the comfort of their home or at the pharmacy while waiting for a prescription to be filled. This service is particularly important to underserved populations who frequently utilize the ED because of a lack of health education rather than a lack of access to alternative care. While a disproportionately high number of ED patients are low socioeconomic status, minorities, non-English speaking,and/or have public aid (or lack) insurance, the vast majority of these patients have frequent access to electronic communication and a growing percentage use Internet-ready mobile devices. Video education offers a visually-appealing educational format which is superior to written instructions, the current standard of care. Video education is particularly advantageous to underserved populations in the ED who more often have poor health literacy and language barriers. This health information divide leads to poor ED aftercare and unnecessary return visits. For patients with adequate health literacy, video education can improve patient satisfaction after a health encounter, an important indicator for hospitals. This post-discharge information-sharing platform additionally provides hospitals with metrics for ED aftercare that do not currently exist. The goal of this STTR is to further develop and test this product concept using two common diagnoses at an academic pediatric ED which serves mostly minority and low socioeconomic families. The study aims are to demonstrate video prescription utilization, improved patient satisfaction scores, and a decrease in the rate of unnecessary return visits to the ED between the intervention (video prescription) group and a control group. The criteria for acceptance of these aims include: a hyperlink click rate of gt70 percent (utilization), a reduction in unnecessary return visits by 10 percent (health outcomes), and a 20 percent improvement in mean post-ED survey scores (patientsatisfaction). A successful feasibility study (Phase I) will allow healthEworks to expand the video catalog and IT infrastructure to make the product scalable as a complete educational tool for hospital EDs and urgent care centers (Phase II). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative Emergency Department (ED) video prescriptions will improve health education for the 100 million patients who are discharged from U.S. ED's annually. The use of this innovative educational technology can enhance hospital efficiency, improve patient satisfaction, reduce inappropriate ED use, and decrease federal health spending.