Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 people in the US. The disease causes significant mortality, morbidity and frequent hospitalizations secondary to primary manifestations of the disease and its complications. We conducted a retrospective, single institution study in adult patients (pts), ≥ 18 years with SCD to assess factors associated with health care utilization [...]

Background: High need patients are characterized by medical complexity, high amounts of health acute care utilization and disproportionate costs[1]. Recent studies have characterized worsening of loneliness in the general population, however, it has not been characterized in the high need population. We hypothesized that increases in loneliness would be associated with increasing symptoms of depression; [...]

Background: Children with medical complexity (CMC) are a growing pediatric population with disproportionately high health needs and costs often insured by Medicaid. Identification of CMC using complexity classification systems applied to population-level data and establishment of baseline patterns of population-level health care utilization are essential to target patients who may benefit most from complex care [...]

Background: When patients are transferred between hospitals (interhospital transfer, IHT), incomplete information exchange between electronic health records (EHRs) poses a barrier to continuity of care. As a result, diagnostic tests may be repeated after transfer, exposing patients to additional risk and adding to costs of care. Shared clinical data between EHRs presents a possible solution. [...]

Background: It is known that anemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic comorbidities. Here, we establish an association between mild and moderate anemia with increased healthcare utilization (HU). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study analyzing HU comprising Emergency Room (ER) visits and Inpatient (IP) admissions over 12 months in patients [...]