The Benefits of Adding Telepsychiatry to Your Emergency Department
Telemedicine and Advancing Patient Care
August 5, 2014 • Business of Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Hospitalist, Preventative Health, Professional Development
Anthony Grimaldi, MA, CASAC, Senior Vice President, Provider/Hospital Division, BHM Healthcare Solutions, touches on the role of telepsychiatry in treating mental health patients. While only 2-5 percent of emergency room cases involve mental health patients, they take up as much as 35 percent of ER resources, creating a stagnation in the emergency department. Through telepsychiatry and the use of specialty training and rapid assessment, mental health patients can be discharged in a much more efficient and timely manner.
The Benefits of Telepsychiatry Include:
1. Improving throughput in the emergency department
2. Rapid discharge
3. Medication order privileges
4. Expediting move from ED to inpatient admission
