Billings Clinic is now Bringing After-hours Psychiatric Care to its Emergency Department and Inpatient Unit Through Partnership with InSight Telepsychiatry
Billings, MT (PRWEB) January 19, 2017 -- Billings Clinic, Montana’s largest healthcare organization, and InSight Telepsychiatry are pleased to announce a new partnership to increase inpatient and emergency psychiatric coverage.
The program is designed to lessen wait times for psychiatric evaluations, admission, and treatment decisions. The partnership gives Billings Clinic staff access to a team of remote psychiatrists who can do psychiatric evaluations, follow-up consultations and medical consultations through telehealth using video calls. Nurses and emergency department physicians can now connect patients with a remote telepsychiatry provider in as little as an hour.
The telepsychiatry program runs from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., 7 days per week. Since, psychiatric emergencies often happen at night or on weekends, this schedule means that individuals in crisis are able to get the care they need more quickly.
The program is a result of a partnership between Billings Clinic and InSight Telepsychiatry, the leading national telepsychiatry organization and partner of MHA Ventures, a subsidiary of the Montana Hospital Association. Montana, like many other states across the country, struggles to have sufficient psychiatric coverage in its hospitals and clinics due to a national shortage of psychiatrists.
At nearly double the national average, Montana has the highest suicide rate in the United States with more than 23 suicides per 100,000 people[1]. Additionally, over 75% of Montana’s population has inadequate access to psychiatry[2]. So with the option to utilize remote providers, telepsychiatry and other telemedicine services represent unprecedented access to specialists who are typically difficult to recruit in rural and underserved areas.
“Really, the best thing about a program like this one,” says InSight’s Medical Director Jim Varrell, MD, “is that Montanans now have access to psychiatric services where they may not have had previously.”
”This partnership is another step for Billings Clinic toward improving mental health care for people in crisis,” said Lyle Seavy, Billings Clinic Director of Psychiatry, “We are addressing those peak times when staffing is a challenge to help meet the needs of our patients, help reduce strain on our staff and help improve the experience for people in a mental health crisis.”
As a result of the partnership, the telepsychiatry program is expected to expand into additional Billings Clinic facilities.
In addition to facility-based models of telepsychiatry, InSight is also working with the Montana chapter of Mental Health America to offer telemental health care to individuals in their home or other private spaces online.
About Billings Clinic
Billings Clinic is Montana’s largest health system serving Montana, Wyoming and the western Dakotas. A not-for-profit organization led by a physician CEO, Billings Clinic is governed by a board of community members, nurses and physicians. At its core, Billings Clinic is a physician-led, integrated multispecialty group practice with a 285-bed hospital and Level II trauma center. Billings Clinic has more than 4,000 employees, including more than 400 physicians and advanced practitioners offering more than 50 specialties. More information can be found at http://www.billingsclinic.com.
About InSight Telepsychiatry
InSight is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider organization with a mission to increase access to quality behavioral health care through telehealth. InSight’s behavioral health providers bring care into any setting on an on-demand or scheduled basis. InSight has 18+ years of telepsychiatry experience and is an industry thought-leader. More information can be found at http://www.InSightTelepsychiatry.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Suicide: Montana 2016 Facts and Figures. (2016). In American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Retrieved January 12, 2017, from [2 Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). (2016, September 8). In Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved January 12, 2017, from http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/mental-health-care-health-professional-shortage-areas-hpsas/?currentTimeframe=0
Olivia Boyce, InSight Telepsychiatry, http://www.insighttelepsychiatry.com/, +1 770.713.4161, [email protected]
Share this article