Maccabi RED - Uberization of Minor Trauma and Semi - Urgent Medical Care in Primary Care Settings

Ilan Yehoshua, Limor Boker Faran, Miri Mizrachi Reuveni, Naomi Sigal

Keywords: Semi - Urgent medical care, minor trauma, Primary care setting

Background:

Avoidable ER visits are a worldwide concern, mainly wasted time for patients and overcrowding in ERs.
Community-based physicians are at high risk of burnout because their routines are dominated by
administrative tasks with few opportunities to treat minor trauma and semi-urgent procedures.

Maccabi RED – An Innovative Urgent Care Search & Match System
We have created nationwide network of 600 community-based maccabi HMO physicians, able and willing
to treat specific minor trauma and provide semi-urgent medical care.

Research questions:

1. Would the new process succeed in remodeling semi-urgent primary care ?
2. would it show a reduction in ER visits ?
3. What would be the effect on both doctors and patients ?

Method:

Patient presents with semi-urgent need for immidiate medical care, during regular operating hours
of the community clinics.
• Patient undergoes clinical triage by nurse/physician.
• Nurse/physician uses Maccabi RED to locate appropriate nearby physician in the RED network.
• RED network physician confirms availability and patient is referred .
• Patients can also use the innovative UBER-like RED app based on a digital clinical decision tree, to
locate appropriate nearby RED network physician by themselve
The data is continuously collected and analysed, as well as the qualitative data about doctors and patients satisfaction

Results:

From December 2017 to July 2019, there were 4,804 cases in which Maccabi RED network was used.
17% - minor surgical treatments, 24% - orthopedic, 17% Ob-Gyn, 14% - ENT and ophtalmology and 24% - other.
• 70% (3,353) – an appropriate physician was available in the patient’s vicinity
• Patients were seen by a physician within 1.1 hours on average from referral.

Conclusions:

The benefits Real-time community-based solution to semi-urgent medical needs.
• Optimal utilization of community-based physicians clinics.
• patients - better, immidiate treatment with less hassle.
• Doctors - Higher satisfaction and less burnout

Points for discussion:

Would the change remain and increase ? Would it work with other HMOs in Israel and worldeide ?

#40