USA Today (6/27, Vestal) runs a Pew Stateline piece reporting that “a ‘telepsychiatry’ program that allows psychiatrists to examine South Carolina patients through videoconferencing, reducing the average wait time” for psychiatric evaluations “from four days to less than 10 hours.” Some 20 hospitals participate in the program, which, according to a study conducted by the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, “has reduced the frequency of hospital readmissions and involuntary commitments.”
A similar program was rolled out in North Carolina in 2010, “and a dozen other states, including Alabama, Kentucky and Wisconsin, plan to follow suit.”
Related Links:
— “Rural hospitals speeding up psychiatric evaluations,” Christine Vestal, USA Today, June 27, 2014.