Psychiatric Patients In the Emergency Department: An Evidence-Based Assessment tool For Inpatient Referral

Psychiatric patients who present to Emergency Departments (ED) are a growing population. These patients are challenging cases for ED healthcare providers who do not feel comfortable or adequately prepared to assess their psychiatric needs. Despite the increasing frequency of psychiatric patients in the ED and the subsequent burden they pose on the ED providers and resources, best practice guidelines and standardized assessment tools have not been developed for this population. Research studies, conducted worldwide, consistently show that specific patient characteristics, symptoms, and contextual factors are predictive of psychiatric inpatient hospitalization. These predictive factors were used to create the Psychiatric Inpatient Referral Assessment Tool (PIRAT), a partially developed, computerized, assessment tool that assists Emergency Department providers in determining if a psychiatric inpatient hospitalization referral is warranted. This tool remains in the beginning stages of development and requires testing the in the practical setting to determine its validity, usefulness, and accuracy