Spectrum Health & Wellness Partners with InSight Telepsychiatry to Increase Access to Psychiatric Care in Franklin County
Chambersburg, PA (PRWEB) December 21, 2015 -- Spectrum Health & Wellness is pleased to announce that they now have increased psychiatric coverage in their outpatient behavioral health services. Spectrum Health & Wellness, LTD offers a range of psychiatric and behavioral health services including psychiatric evaluations and psychotherapy in a community setting.
The new scheduled telepsychiatry services allow coverage for psychiatric evaluations, follow-up consultations and medication monitoring for Franklin County residents.
The program is a result of a collaboration between Spectrum Health & Wellness and InSight Telepsychiatry. When an individual comes to Spectrum Health & Wellness requiring psychiatric care, the onsite staff can now connect them with a remote telepsychiatry provider from InSight for regularly scheduled services. InSight’s telepsychiatry provider will be available in regularly scheduled blocks of time to meet with healthcare consumers for services or with onsite staff for consultation.
The relationship between the InSight telepsychiatry provider and onsite staff is vital to the success of this program. Since June 2015, telepsychiatry provider Melanie Pointer, MD has been working with the Spectrum Health & Wellness team.
“InSight believes in the importance of integrating our services into the existing model of care and works hard to find the right fit between our psychiatrists and the partners they serve,” says Geoffrey Boyce, Executive Director of InSight. “Integrating Dr. Pointer onto the Spectrum team has been a wonderful success.”
“Dr. Pointer has been a wonderful complement to our telepsychiatry services. She quickly related to both our unique member population and our staff. Her professionalism and dedication to our agency is beyond comparison,” reports Dinen Sanders, Clinical Director at Spectrum.
Because of the option to utilize remote providers, telepsychiatry and other telemedicine services represent unprecedented access to specialists who are typically difficult to staff in rural and underserved areas. A striking 96% of US counties, including Franklin County, where Spectrum Health & Wellness is located, have a shortage of psychiatric prescribers . With the new telepsychiatry program, individuals will not only have more access to high-quality care, but to care that’s appropriate for their specific needs.
Sanders says the program is focused primarily on being able to offer the same quality of care as the onsite doctor services, but with a quicker turnaround time for the patient who is willing to accept telepsychiatry services. “We’re excited that this program will reduce the stress put on our internal team and help the people we treat get care that meets their needs."
“Because we’re rural, our system of care has to make use of every viable option,” says Sanders. “Since implementing this program we’ve seen a definitive increase in the amount of people we are able to help.”
InSight Telepsychiatry is the leading national telepsychiatry service provider with a mission to increase access to appropriate behavioral health care.
Daniayla Stein, InSight Telepsychiatry, http://www.inpathy.com, +1 (770) 713-4161, [email protected]
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