Emergency Department Behavioral Health Observation and Stabilization

Emergency department visits for pediatric mental health crises have risen sharply in recent years, while inpatient psychiatric bed capacity has declined, resulting in prolonged patient boarding. This article describes the development and implementation of behavioral health observation (BHO) models to address this gap in care. BHO provides time-limited, intensive psychiatric assessment and crisis stabilization with a multidisciplinary team focused on symptom reduction, diagnostic clarification, and structured disposition planning for patients. The article outlines patient selection, interdisciplinary collaboration, therapeutic interventions, operational considerations, early outcomes, and offers a practical framework to improve behavioral health care in the emergency crisis setting.