Acute psychiatric care: Initial findings from a post-emergency department unit

To permit swift care of psychiatric and suicidal crisis, a post-emergency department unit (named UPSAM) opened on 25th March 2024 at the Angers University hospital. This unit permits a brief stay in a secure environment during which psychiatric care allows a decrease in suicidal ideation and etiological diagnosis followed by a multimodal suicide prevention strategy and ambulatory care organization. For 6 months 348 patients were hospitalized from all 3 corresponding departments. The mean length of stay was 5.6 days resulting in mean bed occupancy of 87.4% discharge; only 37.9% of patients needed public psychiatric care. UPSAM permitted a decrease in waiting time before hospitalization, with a mean delay before hospitalization of 59.4hours in April and 27.4hours in September. Other models of short-stay unit have been tested and showed efficacy in decreasing emergency department waiting time. Further work is needed to better understand appropriate care regimens according to clinical and topographical situations.