Medical psychiatry units: Improving their organization, focus, and value

Medical psychiatric units are hospital inpatient wards aimed at patients with physical and mental disorders, a combination that is common, especially in hospitals. For clinically admitted hospital patients, mental illness is associated with a longer length of hospital stay (LOS), higher medical costs and more readmissions. MPUs focus on the one hand on facilitating medical treatment, and on the other hand on restoration of functioning and quality of life. It is also often emphasized that they have the potential to reduce length of stay, costs and readmissions. Medical and psychiatric diagnoses of patients in these wards are wide and varying. Providing acute medical care creates a field of tension with more process-oriented treatment. There are approxim