Reducing Pediatric Mental Health Boarding and Increasing Acute Care Access.

Background: There have been notable increases in pediatric mental health boarding in the United States in recent years, with youth remaining in emergency departments or admitted to inpatient medical/surgical units, awaiting placement in psychiatric treatment programs.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of interventions to reduce boarding and improve access to acute psychiatric services at a large tertiary pediatric hospital during a national pediatric mental health crisis.

Methods: Boarding interventions included expanding inpatient psychiatric beds and hiring additional staff for enhanced crisis stabilization services and treatment initiation in the emergency department and on inpatient medical/surgical units for boarding patients awaiting placement.

Implementing patient-reported outcome measures on an adolescent inpatient psychiatry unit: A feasibility study.

This article examines the feasibility of implementing patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures with adolescents on an inpatient psychiatry service. During the study period (March 8, 2021, to June 7, 2022), a total of 154 patient encounters were recorded for adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age. PROs were piloted during the first 3 months of the study period, with a focus on technical implementation.