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  • Title: Impact of a mental health based primary care program on emergency department visits and inpatient stays.
    Author: Breslau J, Leckman-Westin E, Han B, Pritam R, Guarasi D, Horvitz-Lennon M, Scharf DM, Finnerty MT, Yu H.
    Journal: Gen Hosp Psychiatry; 2018; 52():8-13. PubMed ID: 29475010.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: Integrating primary care services into specialty mental health clinics has been proposed as a method for improving health care utilization for medical conditions by adults with serious mental illness. This paper examines the impact of a mental health based primary care program on emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. METHOD: The program was implemented in seven New York City outpatient mental health clinics in two waves. Medicaid claims were used to identify patients treated in intervention clinics and a control group of patients treated in otherwise similar clinics in New York City. Impacts of the program were estimated using propensity score adjusted difference-in-differences models on a longitudinally followed cohort. RESULTS: Hospital stays for medical conditions increased significantly in intervention clinics relative to control clinics in both waves (ORs = 1.21 (Wave 1) and 1.33 (Wave 2)). ED visits for behavioral health conditions decreased significantly relative to controls in Wave 1 (OR = 0.89), but not in Wave 2. No other significant differences in utilization trends between the intervention and control clinics were found. CONCLUSION: Introducing primary care services into mental health clinics may increase utilization of inpatient services, perhaps due to newly identified unmet medical need in this population.
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