The DMH Telepsychiatry Program

“Partners in Behavioral Health Emergency Services”
Achieving Tomorrow, Today

Summary:

DMH and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) requested assistance from The Duke Endowment (TDE) to develop a telepsychiatry network for all SC hospitals operating emergency departments (EDs) and received a grant to this end on November 30, 2007.

The objective of the grant is to make psychiatric consultation available in all SC EDs at all times. The consultations will increase the quality and timeliness of triage, assessment and initial treatment of patients; are expected to reduce the number of individuals and length of stay in EDs; and will allow hospitals to direct critical personnel and financial resources to other needs. And, it is expected to result in financial savings for hospitals.

Goals and Objectives:

• Increase the number of patients receiving comprehensive assessment utilizing telemedicine technology.
• Ensure focused documentation is generated for each telemedicine consultation.
• Maximize the number of patients through a seamless joint consultation process.
• Secure better quantitative information on the diagnosis of MH, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders.
• Reduce the average length of stay (LOS) in the ED.
• Increase the number of professional staff in local hospitals receiving training via the DMH/SCHA training presentations.
• Increase the number of psychiatrists and psychiatric residents trained to use the telemedicine system.
• Provide opportunity for a larger pool of psychiatrists for consultation.
• Reduce the cost of mental health care by decreasing the utilization of sheriff deputies, probate judges, and designated examiners.

Key Partners:

• DMH, will, as lead agency, oversee “Partners in Behavioral Health Emergency Services” consultation project. 
• SCHA is a private, not-for-profit organization comprised of 130 institutions and 900 associated members. 
• SC Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the state Medicaid agency, will partner to development a statewide medical health record.
• University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science committed to offer advice and expertise as the project is developed and to assist in recruiting psychiatrists.
• Department of Psychiatry of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has also pledged to assist in planning this project and in recruiting psychiatrists. 
• South Carolina Budget & Control Board’s Office of Research & Statistics (ORS) is the primary technical lead for the development of an electronic health record (EHR).
• Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) agreed to share lessons learned from its successful cardiac telemedicine project.