Evidence Mounts That Urgent Care May Have a Place in the Ongoing Mental Health Crisis

Like x-ray technologists, physicians, and advanced-practice providers, mental health professionals are harder to find all the time—leaving the country mired in a mental health crisis. Patients have to wait weeks or longer to get help when they’re at their most vulnerable. As JUCM News readers know, urgent care has been mentioned frequently as a possible venue to help defuse the situation, though exactly how that could work on a widespread basis has yet to be determined. An article published online by the American Hospital Association points to one hospital-based urgent care solution that has shown good results after just a year and a half in existence. The Guilford County (NC) Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center has improved outcomes, enhanced patient and provider satisfaction, and lowered cost by providing “behavioral healthcare and crisis behavioral health care without the need for an emergency department visit.”  The center houses urgent care services, a 16-bed adult facility-based crisis center, an on-site pharmacy, and general outpatient services. The behavioral health area is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, resulting in only 10% to 15% of patients who report there being referred to the emergency room. An overall 30% reduction in ED volume has been attributed to the center. The readiness of general urgent care centers to handle patients with mental health problems may be a subject of debate, but it’s a certainty that such patients will present. Some may be suffering from more than “typical” disorders, however. An article in the JUCM archive, Psychiatric Manifestations of Organic Disease: Don’t Get Fooled!, may be helpful in making that discernment.