Psychosomatics 46:65-70, February 2005
© 2005 The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine
Treatment of Psychiatric Hospital Patients Transferred to Emergency Departments
Patricia H. Bazemore, M.D.,
David F. Gitlin, M.D., and
Stephen Soreff, M.D.
Received Feb. 25, 2004; accepted May 26, 2004. From the Department of Family Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester; the Department of Medical Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospitals, Boston; and Education Initiatives, Faculty Metropolitan College, Boston University, Boston. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Bazemore, Worcester State Hospital, 305 Belmont St., Worcester, MA 01604; patricia.bazemore{at}state.ma.us (e-mail).
Two hundred public psychiatric hospitals were surveyed regarding their management of inpatients with serious medical problems. Of the 102 hospitals responding, 98 had a formal arrangement with a medical facility for transfer and treatment. Fifty of the respondents felt they regularly had difficulty in receiving acceptable information from the receiving hospital, and 37 perceived that their patients regularly received less than optimal care. There was a significant direct correlation between difficulty obtaining information and the perception of suboptimal care. Seventy-nine hospitals had developed a referral form for the transfer of information to the receiving facility. The results point to an important area of discontinuity in the care of the seriously mentally ill.
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