A multidisciplinary approach to reducing behavioural health-related admissions and high usage of emergency services

Background/Aims Patients who frequently access emergency department and inpatient hospital services comprise only 5–7% of the US population seeking care, but incur over half of the nation's healthcare expenses. Patients who frequently use emergency department services also have higher medical and behavioural health hospitalisation readmission rates. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of behavioural health high usage care plans in reducing readmissions to behavioural health units and use of emergency department services. Methods The behavioural health high usage team designed care plans for patients who frequently accessed emergency department and acute inpatient behavioural health treatment. Emergency department diversion rates were calculated by comparing the number of patients with a care plan who visited the emergency department and were therapeutically discharged to community resources to those who were admitted for acute inpatient behavioural health treatment. The reduction in behavioural health admissions was calculated by comparing admissions among patients pre and post implementation of the behavioural health high usage care plans. Results Following implementation of the behavioural health high usage care plans, the average emergency department diversion rate from May 2022 to August 2024 was 88%, with a 74% reduction in behavioural health admissions. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrated that behavioural health high usage care plans are an effective and therapeutic method to improving patient care quality as well as cross-team collaboration and communication. The care plans served as concise, comprehensive and timely resources for crucial patient information that were easily accessible to emergency department providers and other hospital clinicians.