[NRSKarenRN]

Found at Healthleadersmedia.com:

Sounds like a winning plan: Diversions with a Purpose

Since November 2005, a nurse practitioner stationed in the 111-bed ED has screened patients who lack clear emergency symptoms in an effort to divert inappropriate presentations to one of the hospital’s 12 community-based primary-care centers.....The nurse practitioner uses an internally developed checklist to determine who should be redirected. Then, at the registration desk, a computerized appointment program assigns the patients to a time slot reserved for ER referrals at the most convenient clinic—usually on the same day. Clinic fees are waived for first-time visitors so they get into the system to be tracked via ER-to-clinic referral forms.