Solution To ED Boarding

August 8, 2016 by InTouch Health

Telebehavioral or telemental health care took center stage at the 10th InTouch Telehealth Innovation Forum. Presenters demonstrated how telemental health programs are improving outcomes and lowering costs – from Critical Access Hospitals all the way to the nationwide HCA network.

A recent study by The Commonwealth Fund found that about 80 percent of mental health or psych patients present at EDs and primary care offices, where providers often lack the training to effectively treat them. And a study by the IAHSS Foundation revealed that many Emergency Departments board mental health patients for 24 hours or more. Some rural hospitals have wait times as high as 18 days.

At the InTouch Telehealth Innovation Forum, three providers outlined their solutions to this growing problem:

• The 25-bed Illini Community Hospital in Illinois showed how telemental health technology is linking its community with a tertiary center 50 miles away – and with mental health practitioners as far away as Kansas City. Illini has already achieved a Press Ganey patient satisfaction score of 99 percent.
• At the other end of the scale, HCA annually conducts 17,000 telemental health or behavioral care consultations across its vast network. The hospital giant has already dramatically reduced the ED backlogs of mental health patients.
• The PeaceHealth system in Oregon now provides telemental health care to four hospitals – bringing pediatric services to one facility that had never offered them. PeaceHealth plans to widen its program to provide behavioral telecrisis consultations for two other Oregon hospitals.Studies show that outcomes improve significantly when a behavioral care patient is seen within four hours. These three programs are providing much-needed guidance to other hospitals that are currently overloaded with mental health ED patients and are looking for both clinical and financial solutions.