Anthony Grimaldi, MA, CASAC, Senior Vice President, Provider/Hospital Division, BHM Healthcare Solutions, touches on the role of  telepsychiatry in treating mental health patients. While only 2-5 percent of emergency room cases involve mental health patients, they take up as much as 35 percent of ER resources, creating a stagnation in the emergency department. Through telepsychiatry and the use of specialty training and rapid assessment, mental health patients can be discharged in a much more efficient and timely manner.

The Benefits of Telepsychiatry Include: 

1. Improving throughput in the emergency department

2. Rapid discharge

3. Medication order privileges

4. Expediting move from ED to inpatient admission