[An acute psychiatric ward moves into the community. An empirical test of the satellite model]

A satellite ward is a psychiatric ward at a general hospital settled within a catchment area that is administered by a distant psychiatric hospital. The objective of the satellite model is to close the gap between patients and their community on the one hand and between psychiatry and general medicine on the other. The essential size of the satellite ward that enables it to take care for the patients in its catchment area is discussed controversially. This study investigated admission rates and number of beds needed in two catchment areas distant to the psychiatric hospital from 6 months before opening until 12 months after the opening of a satellite ward with 21 beds in one of the two catchment areas. We registered an 81% increase of admission rates in this catchment area (from 130 admissions in the half-year before the opening of the satellite ward to 235 admissions in the 2nd half-year after it) and a 41% increase in beds needed (from 28.8 beds in the half-year before opening to 40.7 beds in the 2nd half-year following). This increase was significant in comparison to the increase in the controlled catchment area. Thus, only 168 (71%) patients of the catchment area (but 82% of the patients with schizophrenia) were treated in the satellite ward. The remaining patients were treated in the parent house. A selective admission of severely ill patients into the parent house was not observed.