Regional State Hospital Research Articles

Single and Repeated Admissions to a Mental Health Center: Demographic, Clinical and Use of Service Characteristics

Eight hundred and forty one patients with 1,135 consecutive admissions to a university-affiliated mental health center were studied to examine patterns of treatment program use. Twenty two percent of patients had repeat admissions accounting for 42% of hospital episodes. Single admission and repeater groups are compared, and differences among repeater subgroups with progressively greater numbers of admissions per patient are described. Only 10 patients with the highest number of admissions during the study period also were very high utilizers of all services (inpatient, crisis, day hospital, regional chronic state hospital). These patients' characteristics are discussed with implications for future study.

Minnesota: the impact of a community hospital's psychiatric unit on a regional state hospital.

A community hospital serving part of a state hospital's receiving area opened a psychiatric inpatient unit. The authors studied the impact of the new unit on the number of psychiatric admissions to the state hospital, and also sought to determine if the two facilities provided duplicate services to the area. In comparing admission rates to the state hospital before and after the opening of the community unit, they found the unit did not have a significant impact. In comparing sample groups of patients at the two hospitals, they found that each served a different socioeconomic group and therefore did not offer duplicate services.

Nonsegregated acute psychiatric admissions to general hospitals--continuity of care within the community hospital.

Abstract Over a four-year period, 344 patients were admitted as acute psychiatric emergencies to nonpsychiatric units of the three general hospitals of a rural county. After appointment of the psychiatrist as an active member of a medical staff, and with the help of indoctrination exercises, this admission procedure was well accepted by administration, by the physician and nursing staff, and by the patients with private conventional medical disorders who were roommates of those with psychiatric complaints. The median duration of hospitalization was 6.5 to 8.5 days as compared to 30 days in the Regional State Hospital and 24 days in psychiatric units of general hospitals. The proportion of general readmissions was 18 per cent. The nonpsychiatric unit of the general hospital is proposed as a satisfactory alternative, for the care of the acute phase of mental illness, to the traditional forms of psychiatric hospitalization. (N Engl J Med 289:185–189, 1973)