A community medical center in the Baltimore, MD area operates a 200+ bed hospital, many primary care practices throughout the community and hospice services in homes, residential care communities, and inpatient centers. Sheppard Pratt has had a long history of providing behavioral health services to their patients, including integrated primary care through the collaborative care model and inpatient consultation-liaison services.
Problem
The community medical center emergency department was overwhelmed with patients in crisis seeking behavioral healthcare services. With rising ED lengths of stay coupled with increasing acuity and staff dissatisfaction, the community medical center turned to Sheppard Pratt Solutions for a plan to address the challenges.
How Sheppard Pratt Solutions Engaged
The community medical center engaged Sheppard Pratt Solutions experts to provide operational, clinical, and financial expertise to address these challenges. Over a 90-day period, Sheppard Pratt Solutions offered observations and insights on how to improve safe patient flow in the ED. After restructuring its medical services agreements, the community medical center engaged Sheppard Pratt Solutions to manage the emergency department’s psychiatric services. Sheppard Pratt provided personnel to oversee the program, focusing on patient care access, throughput, and enhanced management services, including data analysis, clinical care management supports, and dedicated psychiatric leadership.
Results
Work is currently underway to implement behavioral health best practices in staffing, revenue cycle, and throughput. Funding has been secured and regulatory approvals received to build a crisis bed program with local county funding supports with the goal of reducing ED boarders. KPIs have been established to measure progress.