Improving Communication Between Hospital and Outpatient Psychiatric Providers

Patients suffering from mental illness are often less likely to engage in treatment at an outpatient level. Lack of communication and coordination of care between providers has negative results for the health system and the patient. Improved communication has shown improved satisfaction of providers in health care. Using prior research, an electronic reminder and standardized documentation of communication was added to the health system's electronic health record. The aim of this quality improvement (QI) project was to compare pre-/postintervention communication and satisfaction between emergency department and outpatient psychiatric providers. The QI project was conducted on a convenience sample of 13 outpatient psychiatric providers at a large academic medical center. Using a pre-/postintervention design, QI project data were collected via chart reviews and pre-/postsurveys. The chart review results revealed the communication rate increased significantly from pre (22%) to post (85%), p < .001. The survey results revealed overall satisfaction had statistically significant increase from pre- (Mdn = 3, neutral) to postintervention (Mdn = 5, very satisfied), Z = -2.21, p =.027. The survey results revealed a statistically significant increase in frequency of direct communication from pre- (21%-40%) to postintervention (81%-100%), Z = -2.06, p = .039. The QI project documents an increase in both provider satisfaction and communication post-intervention.