DEVELOPMENT OF GUIDELINE AND ALGORITHM FOR THE INTEGRATION OF VIDEO-CONFERENCING-BASED TELEMENTAL HEALTH AT A REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

Telemedicine has become a major trend in the delivery of medical services with telepsychiatry becoming the counterpart trend for the delivery of mental health services. For some geographical areas, access to mental health services might be difficult for some patients to make regular, sometimes weekly trips to their mental health provider—hence, the development of telepsychiatry. However, the practice of telepsychiatry might not be standardized in some mental health facilities as they might not have guidelines for their practice. As a result, this project sought to develop telepsychiatry guidelines for a selected medical facility in northern California. Literature was reviewed and analyzed. Expert opinions were then gathered regarding best practices in terms of suggested guidelines evaluated by mental health practitioners. All the respondents supported the suggested telepsychiatry guidelines. The Stetler (2001) model provided an orderly and professional research framework appropriate for this project. The results of this project could be applied to the selected medical center and potentially to other medical and mental health facilities