Posts by Schafer Consulting
Successfully Convert a Hospital Medical Unit to an Inpatient Psychiatric Program
Hospital medical units can successfully be converted to an inpatient psychiatric program with careful planning. Below is a quick look from 30,000 feet. Rationale: Adding inpatient behavioral health beds continues to increase in response to high demand for both mental health and substance use treatment. Long wait times and psychiatric patient boarding in emergency departments…
Read MoreCommunicating Psychiatry in a General Hospital November 15, 2019
Managing a psychiatric inpatient unit in a general hospital has unique challenges. Among them is communicating effectively with the rest of the hospital. Here are four things to get across for a better connection with the rest of the hospital: Psychiatric disorders are medical disorders that can be treated Mental health disorders are medical disorders;…
Read MorePsychiatric Mental Health Nurses and Patient Safety
Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses are critical for patient safety
Read MoreQuality & Safety Article 1
We are often contacted to conduct operations assessments and compliance reviews following sentinel events on inpatient psychiatric units and/or emergency departments in which a patient has committed suicide, seriously harmed themselves, other patients, or injured staff. The best safety policies, such as shift-to-shift communications, procedures, a safe physical plant and furnishings are crucial in keeping…
Read MorePatient and Staff Safety on Inpatient Psychiatric Units
Recently we’ve been working with medical center Behavioral Health inpatient units that have increasing patient and staff safety incidents. Most of these involve patient self-harm and/or staff injury. Here are some operational approaches to reducing psychiatric patient self harm and staff injuries. CMS and Joint Commission physical plant ligature risk and suicide prevention reduction regulations…
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