The psychiatric screening clinic at a VA hospital: making it work.

A psychiatric crisis and screening clinic in a general medical and surgical hospital has expanded psychiatric treatment available to general medical patients and has eliminated overcrowding on the psychiatry service. The authors describe admissions procedures and problems that existed before the clinic was developed and ways clinic staff found to deal with the bureaucracy, which include promoting personal responsibility for patient care. The clinic has met its initial goal of decreasing the amount of time patients have to wait for their first contact with professional staff. Feedback from wards indicates that staff have been successful in making appropriate dispositions.