Song Angela A, Oslin David W, Wolk Courtney Benjamin
Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (Song, Oslin, Wolk) and Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics (Wolk), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia (Oslin).
Psychiatr Serv. 2021 Dec 1;72(12):1455-1459. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.202000535. Epub 2021 Jun 2.
This study examined whether documented disparities in access to behavioral health specialty care persisted in a novel integrated primary care model situated in a large health system when triage and referral management supports were provided by a centralized resource center for patients with behavioral health needs.
Patients triaged and referred to specialty behavioral health care who did or did not attend a specialty care visit (N=1,450) were compared in terms of various demographic and clinical characteristics by using binary logistic regression.
Among patients with attendance data, financially unstable individuals were more likely than financially stable counterparts to miss their first appointment with a specialty behavioral health provider after referral from primary care. Previously documented attendance disparities based on race, ethnicity, and illness severity were not observed.
These findings can inform targeted strategies to increase attendance among patients with financial insecurity and reduce disparities in outpatient behavioral health services.
本研究探讨了在一个大型医疗系统中的新型综合初级保健模式下，当由一个集中的资源中心为有行为健康需求的患者提供分诊和转诊管理支持时，在获得行为健康专科护理方面记录在案的差异是否仍然存在。
通过二元逻辑回归，对分诊并转诊至专科行为健康护理且就诊或未就诊的患者（N = 1450）的各种人口统计学和临床特征进行了比较。
在有就诊数据的患者中，经济不稳定的个体比经济稳定的个体在从初级保健转诊后更有可能错过与专科行为健康提供者的首次预约。未观察到先前记录的基于种族、民族和疾病严重程度的就诊差异。
这些发现可为有针对性的策略提供参考，以提高经济不安全患者的就诊率，并减少门诊行为健康服务中的差异。
