Kohl's Cares Program Sees Significant First Year Success

A significant access point for Children’s Health’s CHIP and Medicaid patient population is an emergency room visit, and often for low acuity visits. A low acuity visit is defined as a 3, 4, or 5; common low acuity visits are illness connected to ears, nose, throat, tummy aches, and fevers. High acuity visits are 1 and 2, involving trauma and multiple organs in need.

In 2017, Kohl’s Cares funded a new program for Children’s Health, What to do When Your Child Gets Sick, providing $800,000 for two years. The purpose is to provide access to care to the CHIP and Medicaid population, including improved access to information. The program theorized that providing access to information in two formats – the book, Know What to Do When Your Child is Sick, and a list of all primary care pediatricians (PCPs) in North Texas – would help improve health knowledge. To measure the effectiveness of the education tool, the number of repeat low acuity patient visits was measured. We saw a 6% decrease* in repeat low acuity patient visits to the Emergency Room at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

*There are multiple variables when a parent is deciding why to bring their child into the emergency room. While we believe the percentage decrease could be attributed to the parent utilizing the book, we acknowledge that the book is not the sole reason for the reduction in repeat low acuity patient visits.