By Pritam Ghosh, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer | Access TeleCare
As Featured in Becker’s Hospital Review
Sept. 3, 2024
The issue of ED boarding – holding admitted patients in the ED – has reached “public health emergency” levels according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. The crisis is especially acute for patients experiencing a mental health emergency who wait on average three times longer in emergency rooms than those with medical needs.
When patients are experiencing an acute psychiatric crisis, being stuck in an emergency department waiting room or hallway can be overstimulating and one of the worst places for them to be. With telemedicine, we are able to get more patients the care they need faster by evaluating patients within a few hours of them entering the hospital, not days.
For those experiencing an acute psychiatric episode, the experience can lead to a number of consequences, including poorer outcomes. For hospitals, they can be financial (losses), operational (inefficiencies) and clinical (burnout). One analysis estimated the annual financial loss at one large academic hospital of patient boarding to exceed $1.7 million.
Like so many in healthcare, this problem carries complexity and nuance, and cannot be solved with a one-solution-fits-all approach. Read more >>
