Telemental Health Services: Increasing Access to Mental Health Services and Decreasing Hospitalization

Purpose: Assess the ability of increased assessment via telemental health (TMH) to increase access to care and decrease hospitalizations. Background: There is mental health crisis in the U.S. and mental health services are insufficient despite more than half of Americans (56%) seeking help. Patients seeking mental health treatment have had to deal with the limited options in treatment and long waiting periods.
Methods: This quality improvement (QI) project utilized retrospective chart audit at Project Hospitality (PH) outpatient clinic to compare patients’ hospitalizations, readmissions, and access to care between in-person pre-pandemic metrics with those occurring after institution of the New York emergency TMH guideline initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was obtained from PH’s electronic health record (EHR), Awards, evaluating these screening tools Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD) and the Columbia-Suicidal Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)). Interoperative community EHR data was obtained indicating where and when a patient obtained mental health treatment within and/ or outside the program within the last 90 days.
Results: Availability of TMH through the emergency guideline has resulted in improved access to mental health providers leading to improvement of symptoms, reduction in in-patient hospitalization, and improved patient outcomes.
Conclusion: The implementation of TMH has helped to improve patient access to mental health, reduced loss to patient follow-up, and reduced in-patient hospitalization. Additional work is needed to adopt this guideline into policy ensuring that patients have flexible access to care when it is needed.