Narcisse asks about AMA rates, common ER visits, and mental health

And that's why sometimes they sign against the medical advice and walk out.

How many, by example, how many of our patients actually get in the emergency room and did not finish getting care and sign against medical advice?

Do you have that data?

I don't have the AMA data with us, and I'm happy to get it for you.

I know that our left without being seen data is around 2% in general.

About 2%?

Yes.

What are the most common reasons people visit emergency rooms?

Do you track them to assess the need to continue improving services?

Yes, and every facility is going to have a little differences, right?

A little different nuances to what their patient population comes to.

In general, patients come in for chest pain, come in for belly pain, come in for, you know, shortness of breath.

Under EMTALA, we take care of any patients that come in, right?

And so when an individual layperson might perceive to be an emergency, we're here to help them and figure out whether it is a true life-threatening emergency or not and try to care for them as best of our ability.

Because we track it in the year.

We ask people what they come after the triage nurse finished.

We have a data that we enter it to say why that person is here.

So that data should be easy to gain because the nurses have to tell you why from the triage nurse, why that person was here specifically.

What was the main complaint?

Yes, and each facility has slightly different chief complaints that are their priority.

I don't have the data in front of me, but we can break it down for you if you'd like us to.

What are you assuring New Yorkers with mental health needs are being taken to the correct facilities instead of the emergency room?

How can we streamline this process?

That is a complicated question.

I'm not sure I'm prepared to answer today.

Mental health crises are really important.

I know that the 911 system is central to the BHERDS operation that we're working with, and that we are continuing to work closely with both FDNY and NYPD to address any operational challenges for the mental health crisis system,

and improving call triage, working with agency partners to drive mental health calls to 988 as an example.

Other behavioral health services can reduce unnecessary strain on emergency resources to make sure that New Yorkers who are experiencing mental health crises receive the most appropriate response.

So you're doing some kind of education too as well for those patients?

Let's say a patient come in and they have mental health, like it's not really an emergency acute to be in an emergency room.

So do we use that opportunity?

I used to tell the patient, these are the information and kind of guide the patient through the next step.

We try to provide patients with the appropriate resources to help them get the care they need.

Thank you.

No problem.

And you talk very kind of a little bit.

I apologize for that.

I want everybody to be able to hear the answer.