Texting as a Means of Reducing Pediatric Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Encounters Wait Times
| Autor: | Rachel Hughes, Peggy Cohen Gordin, Carissa van den Berk-Clark, Sally Haywood, Bart Andrews |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Male
medicine.medical_specialty Emergency rooms Adolescent Waiting Lists Mean difference 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine medicine Child and adolescent psychiatry Humans 030212 general & internal medicine Psychiatry Child Propensity Score Quality of Health Care Text Messaging business.industry Mental Disorders 030208 emergency & critical care medicine General Medicine Mental health Pediatrics Perinatology and Child Health Propensity score matching Emergency Medicine Matched group Length of service Female Treatment decision making Hospital Communication Systems business Emergency Service Hospital |
| Zdroj: | Pediatric emergency care. 34(7) |
| ISSN: | 1535-1815 |
| Popis: | RATIONALE There is no universal system to facilitate communication between emergency rooms (ERs) and pediatric mental health providers, which leads to long wait times. This project tested the concept that a group texting application (GroupMe) could improve communication between providers and could reduce wait times by allowing frontline workers to contact multiple providers simultaneously. METHODS We compared total wait times or overall length of service of 906 ER encounters before and 921 encounters after the GroupMe texting application was implemented. To reduce differences between preintervention and postintervention time points, we utilized propensity score matching to generate a matched group of controls (total sample n = 831 ER encounters before and n = 831 ER encounters after). RESULTS Although there were no differences in total wait times when using the GroupMe application, there was a significant decrease in wait times after patients were diagnosed in ER by psychiatric provider both before (mean difference, 96.4 minutes saved; t = 2.23; P < 0.05) and after propensity score matching (mean difference, 88.0 minutes saved; t = 2.48; P < 0.05) for disposition type and acuity level. CONCLUSIONS Use of a group texting application has the potential to improve communication and wait times. However, its ability to reduce overall wait times is hampered when the limited availability of pediatric psychiatry providers results in delays in diagnosis and treatment decisions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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