Psychiatric Expertise, Right at the Bedside.

PARTNER CASE STUDY

Psychiatric Expertise, Right at the Bedside.

How telePsychiatry solves psychiatry staffing challenges for psychiatric patients and patients with comorbid conditions

The Challenge

With a persistent regional shortage of psychiatric professionals, a hospital needed a reliable way to care for two groups: patients admitted for primary medical conditions who also had psychiatric complications or comorbidities, and patients admitted for psychiatric conditions who could not be placed in a psychiatric facility because of limited bed availability across the region.

The hospital recognized its medical and surgical clinicians could not be expected to manage psychiatric needs without specialty input, but recruiting on-site psychiatric clinicians was not feasible.

The Solution

The hospital partnered with Access TeleCare.

Access TeleCare teleBehavioral Health clinicians, including psychiatrists and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, evaluate patients remotely, diagnose psychiatric conditions, recommend and manage appropriate medications, and collaborate directly with the hospital’s medical and surgical clinicians as if they were there in person. The service functions as part of the hospital’s treatment team, not as a separate outside consult. That integration gives on-site clinicians psychiatric expertise they can use in real time while providing integrated patient care.

When psychiatric specialists are not available locally, patients with behavioral health needs still require expertise. Some patients have medical conditions with psychiatric comorbidities. Others have primarily psychiatric needs.

One hospital needed a solution for both.

TelePsychiatry brings the specialist to the patient, helping hospitals provide behavioral health care without requiring patients or clinicians to overcome geography first.

Read the Case Study

Results

On-demand access to psychiatric expertise

Gives hospital teams timely access to psychiatric specialists without relying on local recruitment or waiting for an on-site clinician.

Real-time support for medical and surgical care teams

Provides medical and surgical clinicians with psychiatric guidance as part of the patient’s broader multidisciplinary care team.

Integrated psychiatric diagnosis and medication management

Enables psychiatric specialists to evaluate patients, establish diagnoses, and recommend or manage appropriate medications throughout hospitalization.