Colocated general medical care and preventable hospital admissions for veterans with serious mental illness

This study examined whether veterans with serious mental illness in mental health settings with colocated general medical care had fewer hospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions than veterans in other settings.

Using 2007 data, the study examined hospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions with zero-inflated negative binomial regression controlling for demographic, clinical, and facility characteristics.

Of 92,268 veterans with serious mental illness, 9,662 (10.5%) received care at ten sites with colocated care and 82,604 (89.5%) at 98 sites without it. At sites without colocation, 5.1% had a hospitalization for an ambulatory care-sensitive condition, compared with 4.3% at sites with colocation. Attendance at sites with colocated care was associated with an adjusted count of hospitalizations of .76 compared with attendance at sites with no colocation (β=-.28, 95% confidence interval=.47 to -.09, p=.004).

Colocation of general medical services in the mental health setting was associated with significantly fewer preventable hospitalizations.