Paramedics can safely evaluate psychiatric patients ’ medical condition in the field, study finds

FINDINGSEmergency medical personnel in Alameda County, California, use a screening process for determining whether to “medically clear” patients experiencing psychiatric emergencies before transporting them. They identify patients who are at low risk for medical emergencies and take them directly to a special psychiatric emergency service facility specifically designed for people experiencing psychiatric crises . The protocol used by Alameda County emergency medical staff is an alternative to standard protocols, in which all patients are transported to the nearest emergency department. During a five-year period ended Nov. 1, 2016, Emergency Medical Services staff used the protocol to transport 41 percent o f 53,000 psychiatric emergency cases to the stand-alone psychiatric emergency service facility. As a result, 22,000 psychiatric patients were treated at a specialized facility without first undergoing the standard trip to the emergency department.BACKGROUNDPatients with psychiatric emergencies on involuntary holds are often taken to traditional hospital emergency departments.  However, patients sometimes spend hours to days in an emergency department bed waiting for treatment and access to specialized psychiatric personnel to conduct mental health evaluations. Psychiatric Emergency Services were established to address this gap. Patients still are evaluated to determine that they are not suffering from a life-threatening illness before they are transported to a psychiat...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news