With the soaring rise in mental illness across the nation, more and more patients in hospital ERs and emergency care clinics require mental health care; yet most of these facilities lack a full-time psychiatrist or a mental health professional. While these set-ups can deal with physical emergencies and injuries etc, most of them lack experts to provide required psychiatric care. However, that does not stop patients from approaching these facilities for their immediate mental health needs.
Urgent care clinics make patients wait for long hours before they are treated or moved to another facility while traditional ER doctors often end up admitting psychiatric patients without a thorough assessment. Records from national Centers for Disease Control point that psychiatric patients admitted in hospitals had the longest waiting periods, extending up to 23 hours – almost 14 hours longer than other patients. The nationwide shortage of psychiatrist and increasing burden of mental health issues has unfortunately made this a common scenario across the country.
The solution is Telepsychiatry – psychiatric care delivered remotely via live interactive video-conferencing. Having a qualified psychiatrist – even if not physically present – can not only hasten proper evaluation and treatment for the patient across locations but also decrease the number of admissions.
How does it work?
Psychiatry is a field well suited for telemedicine as it typically does not require elaborate equipment except a simple video-conferencing tool. Once a clinician determines the need for a psychiatric consultation, emergency telepsychiatry consult is similar to other telemedicine consults. A qualified psychiatrist connects with the patient virtually, assesses the condition, and in consultation with the doctor on-call, devises a treatment plan.
These patients thus spend less time in the urgent care/ER, get faster access to the psychiatric care they need, often reducing the chances of being admitted to the hospital.
Doctors at emergency care clinics often lack the training, expertise and time required to treat psychiatric conditions. With the increase in demand for quality mental health care, advanced telemed services can help fill the gap by offering efficient and cost-effective telepsychiatry medicare services tailored to meet specific needs.
Expert board-certified psychiatrists and psychologists at Advanced Telemed services provide high-quality care, mental health diagnosis, and treatment.
Urgent care clinics can also partner with us to fill the need for treating such cases without having to invest in a full-time mental health expert, making any infrastructural changes or referring the patients to other facilities.
For more information on how we can serve your business, big or small, write to us on info@advancedtelemedservices.com or call us on 855-933-3600
