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Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study
OBJECTIVES: To examine the numbers and patterns of patients presenting to an urban acute general hospital with acute mental health presentations and to further investigate any variation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: An urban acute genera...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8969002/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35354634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059102 |
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author | Cann, Johnathon Barter, Reece Battle, Joseph Schwenck, Jonas Anakwe, Raymond |
author_facet | Cann, Johnathon Barter, Reece Battle, Joseph Schwenck, Jonas Anakwe, Raymond |
author_sort | Cann, Johnathon |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: To examine the numbers and patterns of patients presenting to an urban acute general hospital with acute mental health presentations and to further investigate any variation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: An urban acute general hospital in London, UK, comprising of five sites and two emergency departments. The hospital provides tertiary level general acute care but is not an acute mental health services provider. There is an inpatient liaison psychiatry service. PARTICIPANTS: 358 131 patients attended the emergency departments of our acute general hospital during the study period. Of these, 14 871 patients attended with an acute mental health presentation. A further 14 947 patients attending with a physical illness were also noted to have a concurrent recorded mental health diagnosis. RESULTS: Large numbers of patients present to our acute general hospital with mental health illness even though the organisation does not provide mental health services other than inpatient liaison psychiatry. There was some variation in the numbers and patterns of presentations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient numbers reduced to a mean of 9.13 (SD 3.38) patients presenting per day during the first ‘lockdown’ compared with 10.75 (SD 1.96) patients per day in an earlier matched time period (t=3.80, p<0.01). Acute mental health presentations following the third lockdown increased to a mean of 13.84 a day. CONCLUSIONS: Large numbers of patients present to our acute general hospital with mental health illness. This suggests a need for appropriate resource, staffing and training to address the needs of these patients in a non-mental health provider organisation and subsequent appropriate transfer for timely treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns have resulted in variation in the numbers and patterns of patients presenting with acute mental health illness but these presentations are not new. Considerable work is still needed to provide integrated care which addresses the physical and mental healthcare needs of patients presenting to acute and general hospitals. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8969002 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89690022022-04-20 Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study Cann, Johnathon Barter, Reece Battle, Joseph Schwenck, Jonas Anakwe, Raymond BMJ Open Health Policy OBJECTIVES: To examine the numbers and patterns of patients presenting to an urban acute general hospital with acute mental health presentations and to further investigate any variation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: Retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: An urban acute general hospital in London, UK, comprising of five sites and two emergency departments. The hospital provides tertiary level general acute care but is not an acute mental health services provider. There is an inpatient liaison psychiatry service. PARTICIPANTS: 358 131 patients attended the emergency departments of our acute general hospital during the study period. Of these, 14 871 patients attended with an acute mental health presentation. A further 14 947 patients attending with a physical illness were also noted to have a concurrent recorded mental health diagnosis. RESULTS: Large numbers of patients present to our acute general hospital with mental health illness even though the organisation does not provide mental health services other than inpatient liaison psychiatry. There was some variation in the numbers and patterns of presentations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient numbers reduced to a mean of 9.13 (SD 3.38) patients presenting per day during the first ‘lockdown’ compared with 10.75 (SD 1.96) patients per day in an earlier matched time period (t=3.80, p<0.01). Acute mental health presentations following the third lockdown increased to a mean of 13.84 a day. CONCLUSIONS: Large numbers of patients present to our acute general hospital with mental health illness. This suggests a need for appropriate resource, staffing and training to address the needs of these patients in a non-mental health provider organisation and subsequent appropriate transfer for timely treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns have resulted in variation in the numbers and patterns of patients presenting with acute mental health illness but these presentations are not new. Considerable work is still needed to provide integrated care which addresses the physical and mental healthcare needs of patients presenting to acute and general hospitals. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8969002/ /pubmed/35354634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059102 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Health Policy Cann, Johnathon Barter, Reece Battle, Joseph Schwenck, Jonas Anakwe, Raymond Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title | Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title_full | Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title_fullStr | Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title_full_unstemmed | Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title_short | Patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
title_sort | patients presenting to an acute general hospital with acute mental health needs: a retrospective observational cohort study |
topic | Health Policy |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8969002/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35354634 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-059102 |
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