Objective: Delayed access to behavioral health services results in poor outcomes and higher costs. This brief report describes the elimination of a 702-person behavioral health waitlist through phase-based care (PBC), an innovative approach that aligns behavioral health resources with new patients with high-acuity need.
Methods: Two PBC clinics, one triage and another high-acuity treatment, were established. Comparisons of pre-post interventions analyzed nonbehavioral health medical encounters, behavioral health productivity, and no-show rates.
Results: Of 702 waitlisted persons, 614 attended triage clinics within 3.5 months, with patients needing acute care (37%) entering the treatment clinic within 2 weeks. Following evaluation, the waitlisted patients had 23% fewer medical encounters per month (p<0.001), behavioral health revenues increased 29% (p<0.001), behavioral health visits increased 165% (p<0.001), health evaluations increased 287% (p<0.001), and no-shows decreased 33% (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Reallocating resources to new patients and those needing acute care resulted in increased behavioral health evaluations and productivity and reduced nonbehavioral health services without adding staff.
Keywords: Community mental health centers; Financing/funding/reimbursement; Phased-based care; Public-sector psychiatry; Quality assurance; Research/service delivery.