The Hospital Hero Awards are given annually to honor health care professionals who are dedicated to patient care and who help to create miracles for patients. Hospitals that are members of the Hospital Association of Southern California are eligible to submit award nominees.

Mrs. Biscaro is an RN and supervisor of Access Case Management. Mr. Robledo is a LCSW and manager of Medical Social Work. They teamed up to fix a problem that plagues emergency departments everywhere – people who overuse the emergency room and treat it like a visit to the doctor’s office.

The duo took the initiative to determine the reason so many patients were chronic users of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital emergency room. They tediously studied the medical records of these patients and determined that care coordination was the cure for chronic emergency room use. Together they created patient-centered care plans for more than 400 children and 60 adults.

By creating the care plans, they reduced the overuse of the emergency room at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital by 81 percent and saved more than $1.5 million dollars.

We congratulate Laurie Biscaro and Sal Robledo for earning a 2012 Hospital Hero Award.

About Cottage Health System

The not-for-profit Cottage Health System includes Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital — and its associated Cottage Children’s Hospital and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. Last year, the Cottage hospitals provided inpatient care for 21,000 people, treated 65,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,500 newborns.

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