Frequent Users Of Health Services Initiative (FUHSI)

The State's County Medical Services Program (CMSP) Governing Board has for the last year been facilitating a collaborative planning process to determine the needs of the hundreds of frequent inappropriate users of Sonoma County hospital emergency departments, many of whom are homeless. The California Endowment in cooperation with the Corporation for Supportive Housing has been funding this planning effort. The hope is to secure an implementation grant offer more appropriate services for these frequent users, thus reducing excessive emergency care costs and better serving the patients.

The lead agency to implement the FUHSI project will be Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital's Community Benefit Division. The program, if funded, will include Sutter and eventually roll out to other hospitals countywide. The FUHSI collaborative has submitted a grant proposal for just under $900,000 over three years to provide patient advocates in the emergency departments to identify and assess frequent users, integrate case management for participants across health, mental health, substance abuse, human services, courts, housing, and homeless services, find each client a "medical home", and provide training in pain management and other relevant issues to clinicians and service agencies. We were among twelve applicants invited to submit full proposals for five implementation grants statewide. We should hear in late summer of '04 if we have been funded. For information contact Georgia Berland, the Task Force's representative on the FUHSI Collaborative at sctaskforce@aol.com or 575-4494.