Peer recovery coaches and emergency department utilization in patients with substance use disorders.

BACKGROUND: Although Emergency Departments (ED) frequently provide care for patients with substance use disorders (SUD), there are many barriers to connecting them with appropriate long-term treatment. One approach to subside risk in this population is the Peer Recovery Coach (PRC). PRCs are individuals with a lived experience of the rehabilitation process and are a powerful resource to bridge this gap in care by engaging patients and their families and providing system navigation, self-empowerment for behavior change, and harm reduction strategies. The purpose of this project is to describe an ED-based PRC program, evaluating its feasibility and efficacy. METHODS: This was a retrospective quality improvement project conducted at 3 suburban hospitals. All patients arriving to the ED were screened with a brief questionnaire in triage and patients identified as a high-risk had referral placed to a PRC if the patient consented. The PRC met with the patient at the ED bedside if possible. The PRC program members collected prospective data on patient engagement with the PRC at 30, 60, and 90 days post ED encounter. Using the EMR we identified the number of subsequent ED visits at 30, 60, and 90 days (for both medical and substance use disorder-related visits) from the index PRC visit. RESULTS: There were 448 individuals identified and included in this analysis between January 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, of which 292 (66%) were male and the mean age was 44 (range 18-80). Most patients identified alcohol as the primary substance they used (289, 65%), followed by heroin/opiates (20%). At 30, 60, and 90 days, there were 110 (25%), 79 (18%), and 71 (16%) patients who were still actively engaged in the program, respectively. Among all patients in the cohort, there was essentially no decrease in mean visits before versus after the PRC engagement visit. However, among patients who had at least one prior ED visit, there were significant differences in mean visits across all visit-types: for patients with 1 prior ED visit, 90 day mean decrease in visits = 1.0 visits (95% CI 0.7-1.2), for patients with 5+ prior ED visits, 90 day mean decrease in visits = 3.6 visits (95% CI 2.4-4.8). CONCLUSION: We describe the implementation of an ED-based PRC program for patients with substance use disorders. While we demonstrated that it is feasible for the PRC to engage the patient while in the ED, there was poor follow-up with the program outpatient. For patients with at least one previous SUD visit to the ED, there was a statistically significant reduction in ED utilization after engaging with a PRC while in the ED, suggesting this may be a population that could be targeted to link patients to long term care and decrease repeated ED utilization.

A comparison study of the turnaround time for telepsychiatry versus face-to-face consultations in general hospital nonpsychiatric emergency rooms.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric consultation services, particularly for emergencies, are limited in many parts of the United States. Telepsychiatry services are helping to bridge the gap, and are gaining acceptance and popularity. There is paucity of publications regarding comparison of turnaround time for consultations between video conferencing and traditional face-to-face psychiatric consultations in general hospital nonpsychiatric emergency departments (EDs). Our study aimed to address turnaround time and patient satisfaction. METHODS: Data regarding the turnaround time for emergency psychiatric consultations using telepsychiatry in general hospital EDs was collected retrospectively and compared with the time for face-to-face traditional consultations. A patient satisfaction survey was also conducted after the telepsychiatry consultation. Statistical analysis of the data was done after the study was completed. RESULTS: The telepsychiatry group included 206 participants and the control group had 186 participants. There was an 84% reduction in the turnaround time for telepsychiatry consults (95% confidence interval, 81% to 86%). A patient satisfaction survey showed 97% satisfaction with telepsychiatry services. Gender and age did not modify the effect of telepsychiatry on time to consult (P > .10). CONCLUSIONS: The reduction in the turnaround time and improved patient satisfaction indicate that telepsychiatry services can improve the quality of care for patients in need of emergency services.