Chapter 552, item 317KK of the 2021 Appropriations Act (“the Act") mandated the establishment of a workgroup focused on the Virginia Emergency Department Care Coordination (EDCC) program, a program managing statewide use of the Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE) software package. The purpose of the workgroup was to identify how to optimize and facilitate communication and collaboration across providers and care domains to improve the quality of care of Commonwealth citizens receiving emergency department (ED) services. The Act stipulated that the workgroup:

1) Determine how best to measure performance of the system;

2) Identify utilization trends and outcomes; and

3) Make recommendations for system improvements.

Bringing together perspectives of a wide range of EDCC stakeholders to identify opportunities to enhance the EDCC’s ability to use communication and collaboration to improve the quality of care received by Commonwealth members using ED services, the workgroup identified nine (9) EDCC Performance Measures, a system for identifying ED utilization trends and outcomes, five (5) policy recommendations for system improvements and ten (10) EDCC Advisory Council steps to enhance use of the EDCC.