|
As many as thirty to sixty percent of general hospital medical-surgical
patients have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Numerous studies
suggest that psychiatric disorders not only make medical care more
difficult, complex and costly, but also increase medical morbidity
and mortality.
BWH
Director: Dave Gitlin, M.D.
The Medical Psychiatry Service is available twenty-four hours
a day to provide consultation and to aid in the treatment, management
and disposition of patients with medical-surgical illness who also
have a psychiatric disorder. Its mission is to provide psychiatric
consultations, including patient evaluations and treatment-management
recommendations to all in-house units, the Emergency Room and any
other hospital setting in need of an urgent psychiatric consultation.
The Addiction Consultation and Education (ACE) Team, which is part
of the Medical Psychiatry Service, is also available to consult with
clinicians.
The clinical activities of the Consultation Liaison Service includes
both direct patient-related functions and staff liaison. Direct patient-related
functions include: formal psychiatric assessment and examination of
the patient and consultation to the medical or surgical team; continued
treatment and management recommendations for the medical-surgical
patient in a collaborative relationship with the medical or surgical
service.
Staff liaison activities include: staff-to-staff consultation regarding
individual patients; assistance to medical staff in understanding
psychological factors within the milieu of specific medical/surgical
units or programs; participation in rounds and other educational functions
on specific medical/surgical units; support services for staff including
group sessions, as needed and participation in patient care case conferences.
Medical Psychiatry services can be obtained in the following manner:
- routine weekday consultations are called in to our office at 617-732-6701.
The requesting MD, who should have attending approval for the consult,
provides the reason for the consult, demographic data, diagnosis if
available and assurance that an order for the consultation has been written.
- emergency consultations on weekday nights (5 pm- 8 am) and on weekends can be obtained by contacting the psychiatrist on call at beeper 13088.
Psychiatry Outpatient Service
Director: David Diamond, M.D.
The Division of Psychiatry also operates the Outpatient Psychiatry
Clinic and a faculty practice, Brigham Associates in Psychiatry, to
serve the outpatient mental health needs of BWH patients. If outpatient
services are needed, the BWH clinician should have his/her patient
call the Outpatient Triage Clinician, weekdays 8:30 am - 5 pm, at
732-6753, who will speak with the patient and/or referring physician
to assess the patient's clinical needs and make appropriate treatment
recommendations. These recommendations include referral for care to
the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic, the faculty practice or other facilities
in the community.
MGH MEDICAL PSYCHIATRY SERVICES
Psychiatry Outpatient Department
Director: Jerrold Rosenbaum, M.D.
The Department of Psychiatry operates an Outpatient Department
that provides a wide range of specialty and subspecialty ambulatory
mental health and substance abuse services for adults, children and
adolescents, as well as clinical research trials.
Outpatient Triage handles referrals to the Outpatient Department and
operates weekdays 8:30 am - 5 pm. For referrals of adult patients,
the clinician or patient should call 617-724-7792. For referrals of
children and adolescents, the clinician or parent should call 617-726-2725.
Referral options include care in the Outpatient Department clinics,
MGH Health Centers, the private practices of department faculty, other
facilities within Partners Psychiatry and elsewhere in the community.
Psychiatric TeleConsultation Unit
Director: Jonathan Worth, MD
The Psychiatric TeleConsult Unit (PTCU) is a telephone consultation
service for MGH primary care physicians and nurse practitioners and
resident physicians in medicine. It provides immediate phone consultation—an
electronic "curbside" consult—with a senior MGH staff
psychiatrist on patients with a mental health and/or substance abuse
issue, including answers to questions about diagnosis, treatment and
psychopharmacology, as well as help obtaining a referral. The PTCU
is often called while the patient is in the primary care clinician's
office. The PTCU operates weekdays 9 am - 5 pm, phone 617-724-0588.
|
Back to Top