NORFOLK, Va. — It's no secret that mental health care continues to be in high demand. In 2022, 90% of the American public considered the United States to be in a mental health crisis.
That's according to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and CNN.
Sentara recently said it's been able to decrease the length of stays in its emergency rooms for people who have behavioral health needs. In 2023, the health system said it saw an 18% increase in patients with behavioral health needs—including mental health and substance abuse disorders.
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Sentara said, through some changes, it's been able to reduce the length of stays in the ER by more than 10%.
Those changes include therapists who can hold appointments virtually and in person, and they've also launched a process to screen patients who may be at risk of harming themselves.
"The patient is scored by either low, medium, or high. If that patient scores high, that patient is immediately taken back in front of our charge nurse," said Nikosha Qunierly, the director of patient care services at Sentara Careplex Hospital. "Then we are immediately notifying our doctors, we're creating that safe space for the patient."
Quinerly said there are different care areas where they're about to minimize stimuli and extra noise for their behavioral health patients.
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Sentara said it's also using telepsychiatry—it's a virtual, face-to-face appointment where psychiatrists can complete their assessments.
The health system also developed an opioid treatment and follow-up program where medical staff can now administer buprenorphine which eases withdrawal.
All of these changes, Sentara says, contributed to a decreased length in hospital stays.
"Sometimes our average length of stay might have been 72 hours or more," Quinerly said. "And we are now seeing that at 24 to 48 hours."
