TY  - JOUR
T1  - The value of community health workers: Comment on community health workers combat readmission
AU  - Katz MH
Y1  - 2012/12/10
N1  - 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.105
JO  - Archives of Internal Medicine
SP  - 1758
EP  - 1758
VL  - 172
IS  - 22
N2  - 
The vignette about Mr Alberts is familiar to all of us working in safety-net hospitals. “Frequent flyer” patients may be young or old, male or female, and of any ethnicity. What they have in common is that their problems are not solvable by hospitals or medical systems. Yes, we can treat their pneumonias, skin abscesses, and in Mr Alberts's case their chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder exacerbations, but we are ill-equipped to treat poverty, homelessness, addictions, and loneliness. We spend large sums of money on medical care, including expensive diagnostic tests, and then shake our heads at the inability of our society to pay relatively small sums to provide food, housing, and transportation to medical visits.

SN  - 0003-9926
M3  - doi: 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.105
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.105
ER  -