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. 2021 Jul;57(5):973-978.
doi: 10.1007/s10597-020-00702-8. Epub 2020 Aug 17.

Impact of a Rapid-Access Ambulatory Psychiatry Encounter on Subsequent Emergency Department Utilization

David S Kroll  1   2 , Karen Wrenn  3 , John A Grimaldi  3   4 , Lorna Campbell  3 , Lisa Irwin  3 , Maria Pires  3 , Natalie Dattilo  3   4 , Julia Schechter  3 , Nomi Levy-Carrick  3   4 , David F Gitlin  3   4
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Impact of a Rapid-Access Ambulatory Psychiatry Encounter on Subsequent Emergency Department Utilization

David S Kroll et al. Community Ment Health J. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

The authors sought to determine whether providing a rapid-access ambulatory psychiatry encounter correlated with emergency department utilization during a 6-month follow-up period. Electronic medical records of patients who accessed ambulatory psychiatric care through an urgent care psychiatry clinic that offers treatment exclusively on a walk-in basis over a 1-year period (N = 157) were reviewed retrospectively to track emergency department encounters with and without a psychiatric chief complaint in the 6 months before and after the initial psychiatry evaluation. Among patients who had not previously received ambulatory psychiatric care (N = 88), emergency department utilization decreased from 0.68 visits per patient to 0.36, and this difference was statistically significant (p = 0.0147). No statistically significant differences were found between the average number of emergency department encounters in the 6 months before and after the rapid-access ambulatory psychiatry encounter, regardless of chief complaint, when all patients were included in the analysis. Providing a rapid-access ambulatory psychiatry encounter may reduce subsequent emergency department utilization among patients who have not previously received ambulatory psychiatric care.

Keywords: Access to care; Barriers to care; Program development; Utilization.

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