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COVID-19, Telemedicine and Emergency Department Referrals: Patient Presentations and Follow-up Times to a Community Mental Health Team

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

M. Zubir ,
J. Costello ,
A. Ali ,
C. Erwins ,
M. Cheasty  and
L. Judge
M. Zubir*
Affiliation:
The Rotunda Hospital, Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
J. Costello
Affiliation:
Health Service Executive, North Dublin Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
A. Ali
Affiliation:
Health Service Executive, North Dublin Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
C. Erwins
Affiliation:
Health Service Executive, North Dublin Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
M. Cheasty
Affiliation:
Health Service Executive, North Dublin Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
L. Judge
Affiliation:
Health Service Executive, North Dublin Mental Health Service, Dublin, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic caused changes to how healthcare services are utilised and delivered.

Objectives

We examine the impact of COVID-19 on the pattern of emergency patient presentations referred on to the community mental health team and the impact of utilising telemedicine on time to follow-up.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed all clinical records of patients currently attending our service. We identified presentations to the emergency department (N=119) who were subsequently referred on for mental health follow-up.

Results

Patients being referred to our team from emergency departments were significantly younger during, mean age 33.1 years (SD=12.3) compared to before the pandemic, mean age 40.0 years (SD=14.5), p=0.006 and a higher proportion were new patients during, 55.8%, compared to pre-pandemic period 33.3%, p=0.015. There was also a higher proportion of patients presenting with suicidal ideation and lower proportions of affective, psychosis and suicidal/self-injurious acts during the pandemic period compared to before, p=0.006. The ratio of female to male patients on the other hand were similar during both periods, p=0.853. There appeared to be no difference in median time to follow-up pre and during the pandemic (6.0 vs 5.5 days, p=0.995). Further analysis also found no significant impact on time to follow-up upon implementing telemedicine consultations, with median days to initial follow-up of 6 days pre-pandemic, 4.5 days during pandemic + prior to telemedicine and 6.5 days during pandemic + telemedicine, p=0.602.

Conclusions

This study provides preliminary data on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health emergency presentations and utilization of telemedicine on time to follow-up by CMHTs.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

TelemedicineAUDITCovid-19Community Mental Health Services
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S206 - S207
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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