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Telepsychiatry for Medical Surgical Floor Consultations The national trend of shortages of psychiatric resources coupled with the increasing prevalence of behavioral health issues, often places hospitals in a difficult position of evaluating and treating the behavioral health issues of their medical or surgical patients.While larger hospitals with a psychiatric unit may have access to employed psychiatrists to conduct these evaluations, the demands of those units and overall structure of the behavioral health system within the hospital can often be impediments to ensuring timely access to psychiatric consults for medical and surgical patients. Smaller hospitals or those without a psychiatric unit may be faced with the complexities of contracting with a community psychiatrist to come into the hospital to conduct these evaluations. Depending on the demand within the community and the availability of psychiatrists, it is not uncommon for hospitals to find it difficult to obtain timely onsite med/surg psych consults from outside psychiatrists. The result can be that the evaluation and treatment of behavioral health issues of medical patients is either delayed or provided by a clinician other than a psychiatrist. InSight’s telepsychiatry programs can address either problem by tapping into its network of employed telepsychiatrists to offer psychiatric evaluation and consultation as needed to support the medical staff and consumers of the hospital at any time. These televideo psychiatric consultations can be provided within any time requirements of the hospital and can be used for either the initial assessment of an individual or for follow-up consultations throughout the hospital stay. The InSight psychiatrist provides documentation as required by the hospital and will communicate and collaborate directly with members of the consumer’s hospital clinical team to formulate and administer treatment plans. Typical Equipment Setup Depending on the technical capabilities, infrastructure, and size of the hospital, a typical televideo equipment setup for telepsychiatry consults to med/surg patients can vary greatly. Some facilities have elected to designate a specific telemedicine room on each floor where they install fixed video conferencing equipment and will bring patients for the specific encounter. Other hospitals may be better suited to a mobile application where a televideo unit on a rolling cart will be brought to the patient within his or her room. These systems may be either wired or wireless. For telepsychiatry consultations, onsite staff such as a nurse must be available to initiate the televideo interview. Depending on the case, it may not be necessary for the onsite facilitator to remain with the patient during the interview. As the interview concludes, the telepsychiatrist will communicate directly with onsite staff to collaboratively discuss options and next steps. Resources and Documentation |
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