Beam Me Out: Review of Emergency Department Telepsychiatry and Lessons Learned During COVID-19
Open accessAbstract
Purpose of review The aim of this review is to critically evaluate recent literature on the use of telepsychiatry in emergency departments (EDTP) and synthesize the evidence on telepsychiatry during public health emergencies. We also report on experiences and success stories from a state-wide EDTP program in South Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic.Recent findings We identified 12 peer-reviewed articles published between January 2019 and February 2021 that evaluated EDTP interventions and their impact on patient outcomes. The recent evidence on EDTP shows a significant association between EDTP implementation or use and decreased patients' wait time in emergency department (ED), shorter length of stay in certain settings, reduced ED revisit rates, improved ED patient disposition (e.g., more discharge to home, less observational stays, and decreased inpatient admissions), and reduced follow-up encounters involving self-harm diagnosis. The EDTP virtual delivery model can help healthcare systems reduce burden of public health emergencies on providers, staff, and patients alike. While a disruption of magnitude seen by COVID-19 may be infrequent, strategies used during the pandemic may be implemented to enhance care in rural settings, and/or enhance preparedness of communities and healthcare systems during more commonly occurring natural disasters.
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- Authors
- Natafgi, N., Childers, C., Pollak, A., Blackwell, S., Hardeman, S., Cooner, S., Bank, R., Ratliff, B., Gooch, V., Rogers, K., & Narasimhan, M.
- Affiliations
- University of South Carolina (US)
- Prisma Health (US)
- South Carolina State Department of Mental Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hardeman, Suzanne
- Venue
- Current Psychiatry Reports
- Published
- 2021-10-06
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 72-72
- ISSN
- 1523-3812 (ISSN-L)
- 1535-1645
- PMC
- PMC8493776
- OpenAlex
- W3203852480
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 0.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Current Psychiatry Reports (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Emergency and Acute Care Studies
- Keywords
- telepsychiatry, COVID-19 pandemic, public health emergencies, emergency department waiting times, length of hospital stay, patient disposition, self-harm, rural mental health services, disaster preparedness
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Emergency Service, Hospital, Humans, Psychiatry, Telemedicine, Pandemics
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