Planning acute psychiatric services: a survey of current practice

Several factors have combined to make planning for acute psychiatric inpatient services an important concern of health planners. We report on a nationwide survey of the planning methods used by state health planning agencies to certify need for acute psychiatric services. The results indicate that very few state agencies have developed sophisticated planning methods. The majority use simple bed-to-population ratios, which vary widely from state to state, or rely on past utilization to predict future demands. One-fourth of the states have no method for determining need. The implications of these findings for informed, meaningful planning of psychiatric services are discussed.