Are you practicing (or curious about) telepsychiatry? The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research (NCCPPR) has just released their report on North Carolina’s promising, statewide telepsychiatry program, and their recommendations on how both funding and new legislation can ensure the program–and others like it–can succeed. The report provides a good background on telepsychiatry, its potential role and benefits in patient care, and reviews telepsychiatry goals and considerations that will be helpful when evaluating your own program or private practice.
Moreover, it is a very hopeful solution to increasing access to mental health services and improving patient outcomes, making it our favorite type of report. One of the highlights: the length of stay (LOS) in emergency room for patients waiting to be discharged to inpatient treatment at one hospital decreased by more than half, from 48 hours to 22.5 hours.
You can view the report from their website here: Telepsychiatry in North Carolina: Mental Health Care Comes To You.
Edited August 9, 2017 to update link to report.