The healthcare issue addressed at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center Paramus, NJ (BNBMC) entails timely access to aftercare either in Psychiatric partial hospitalization, (PHP) intensive outpatient (IOP), or outpatient (OP) level of care. The ACA’s focus on increasing and improving healthcare systems remains an issue at BNBMC (Broom & Marshall, 2021). The ACA goal for healthcare in the United States to enhance healthcare access to health rather than disease is germane to expanding resource availability. PHP, IOP, and OP remain limited at BNBMC. PHP evaluations are only available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Therefore, a request to expand available PHP appointments to more than three and IOP and OP appointments for evaluations to more than two per week. The inadequacy puts patients at high risk for relapse after leaving the emergency department and in need of inpatient hospitalization Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue.
The leadership proposal is to expand virtual appointments for evaluations for all outpatient levels of care mentioned. Furthermore, the request is for hiring additional staff to accommodate the need for timely appointments to evaluate and have patients begin treatment within the same week they have presented to the emergency department due to a psychiatric crisis. A review of two recent studies regarding the effectiveness of virtual psychiatric care will follow.
First Brief Summary of an Article Supporting Efficacy and Effectiveness to Expand use of
Telepsychiatry to Accommodate Healthcare Needs
The broad study of literature found the COVID-19 pandemic has initiated extraordinary healthcare system adjustments benefiting psychiatry for one through telepsychiatry (Chen et al.,2020). The pandemic propelled insurance payment for telepsychiatry by reducing regulations previously prohibiting the same (2020). The research findings show effectiveness, and at times telepsychiatry demonstrates above-average benefits than in-person psychiatric treatment (2020). Psychotherapist and psychiatric clinicians note the advantage of seeing a glimpse into the patients’ lives while in their home environment through virtual treatment connections (2020) Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue. Psychiatric clinician reviews of their experience of conducting telepsychiatry provide communication to the leadership of additional needs to effectively provide care (2020). Some of those needs include additional supervision, support and validation, and ongoing research on telepsychiatry care (2020).
Advocacy for the expansion of outpatient providers in psychiatry to comply with enhancing healthcare access to focus on health rather than disease is pertinent to expanding resource availability at BNBMC.
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