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Telepsychiatry for Inpatient Psychiatric Units While every inpatient psychiatric unit will have access to onsite psychiatry for the primary delivery of services, inpatient psychiatric units are also experiencing the negative effects of the national shortage of psychiatrists. The limited number of available psychiatrists are in high demand. As they are continually be asked to do more, it has become increasingly difficult for many psychiatric units to arrange for the provision of onsite psychiatry during evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays.Many units seek to utilize telepsychiatry as a way of appropriately processing newly admitted patients during evening and weekend hours where regulations require an assessment by a psychiatrist within a set time period. For units experiencing the difficulty of staffing after-hours shifts or providing timely initial assessments on new admissions, InSight presents a viable alternative mechanism of delivering evaluation and care, particularly for weekend rounding or psychiatric crisis intervention during after-hours. This service has proven particularly effective in augmenting the work of onsite psychiatrists and has improved the success of many facilities in recruiting and retaining excellent onsite psychiatrists by offering a support mechanism that can reduce onerous after-hours call and rounding obligations. Through real-time video conferencing links to InSight’s employed telepsychiatrists, inpatient psychiatric units are now able to access psychiatry for scheduled blocks of time or within psychiatric crisis, where they can get prompt access to a clinician for direct patient evaluation and intervention. Typical services consist of routine, scheduled interaction for rounding and medication management. Typical Equipment Setup Many inpatient units will install dedicated video conferencing equipment within a designated telemedicine room where they will usher patients for their interactions with the telepsychiatrists. For units where the mobility of the consumers is a concern, the televideo equipment can be mounted to a rolling cart that can be brought to the consumer for the real-time interaction. Additionally, many units are integrating the video equipment within their conference and meeting rooms so that the telepsychiatrists can participate in treatment review meetings and can offer medical leadership and supervision. Resources and Documentation |
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