Hospital emergency departments (EDs) serve a critical role in its non-discriminatory evaluation and stabilization of all individuals who present for care, regardless of ability to pay. However, EDs are not adequately prepared or capable of caring for children and adolescents who are in behavioral health crisis and require acute treatment. The frequency and duration of pediatric ED visits have also increased over time, leading to crowded EDs, suboptimal delivery of behavioral health care, and strain on hospital resources. In response, hospital systems, states, and the federal government developed a variety of policies to support EDs in the delivery of high-quality care and improve pediatric behavioral health outcomes. Numerous drivers involving the low supply of pediatric behavioral health care professionals, high demand for emergency behavioral health evaluation and treatment, and fragmentation of the behavioral health care system interact to continue to drive patients to EDs despite the implemented policies. Further investigations are needed to exactly determine patients’ unmet needs and identify root causes of pediatric behavioral health ED visits. Last, pediatric behavioral health care policy must not only expand on individual policy successes but also take innovative, value-based approaches to effectively address the worsening pediatric behavioral health crisis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/43898 |
| Date | 14 February 2022 |
| Creators | Wang, Judy |
| Contributors | Moussavi, Mina |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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