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.
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This study was funded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital through the 2017-18 H. Richard Nesson Fellowship, Fund #017002.
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All authors are employed by Brigham and Women’s Hospital. All authors have no further conflicts of interest to disclose.
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Kroll, D.S., Wrenn, K., Grimaldi, J.A. et al. Impact of a Rapid-Access Ambulatory Psychiatry Encounter on Subsequent Emergency Department Utilization. Community Ment Health J 57, 973–978 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00702-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00702-8