Joint Commission’s Psychiatric Hospital Accreditation Program Approved for Another 6 Years
CMS required the accrediting organization to increase training of its surveyors, as well as make other procedural changes, to ensure TJC was aligned with the federal agency’s oversight of psychiatric hospitals, according to an announcement in the Federal Register, scheduled to be published on February 27.
More Patients Getting Care for Mental Health Conditions in Primary Care Visits
The new research article, which was published in Health Affairs, is based on data collected from more than 100,000 primary care visits from 2006 to 2018. Data was drawn from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
Integrated Healthcare: Making Behavioral Medicine Part of the Total Picture
A recent study found that patients with behavioral health conditions face annual healthcare costs of $12,272 versus $3,552 for patients without. But it’s not just a matter of cost; over half of adults in the U.S. with mental illnesses, or roughly 27 million people, do not receive treatment for their condition.
Emergency Department Length of Stay for Children with Mental Health Conditions Spikes
The new study, which was published by the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open, is based on data collected from January 2020 to December 2021 at 107 emergency departments in 29 states.
Alarm Raised Over Patient Boarding in Emergency Departments
Boarding in emergency departments occurs when there is a shortage of inpatient beds for hospital admissions or there are no beds at external facilities such as psychiatric hospitals. The Joint Commission recommends that emergency department boarding not exceed four hours; however, it has become common to have emergency department boarding for days or weeks, according to ACEP.
Technology Is Changing Mental Healthcare, But Not the Need for Mental Health Professionals
The benefits of telehealth are obvious through the lens of the pandemic. Many people still prefer to limit their exposure to others. Getting to an in-person appointment can be tough, especially during work hours. Travel time means additional time away from work or other obligations. A telehealth appointment sidesteps all these concerns.
ECRI: Healthcare Organizations Must Address Racist Behavior in the Workplace
The majority of the racist incidents involved patients and family members making inappropriate comments related to race or ethnicity. These comments can have a negative impact on the mental health of healthcare providers—leading them to consider leaving their jobs at a time when workforce shortages are a significant problem at healthcare organizations.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 62 – A New Approach to Cognitive Assessment
On episode 62 of PSQH: The Podcast, Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, and Chief Medical Officer of Linus Health, talks about his new research into cognitive assessment.
Streamlining Mental Health Treatment
The nonprofit Mental Health America states that more than half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, for a total of over 27 million adults in the U.S. In its 2022 State of Mental Health in America report, the organization found that 67% of adults with a mental illness in Hawaii, the bottom-ranked state, did not receive treatment.
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Supports 26 New Studies
The $258 million in funding was announced by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The institute also announced an additional $3.9 million for two projects to promote wider and faster clinical adoption of useful findings from completed PCORI clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies.