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South Carolina Department of Mental Health Using Polycom Video Solution TMCnet Contributor The South Carolina Department of Mental Health, or "DMH," is using a video communications network powered by Polycom (News - Alert), Inc. to deliver high-quality mental healthcare to remote emergency departments, or "EDs." The DMH's video network allows patients to have immediate access to the state's psychiatric network. The DMH Telepsychiatry Consultation Program was created to address mental health care delivery challenges. The DMH telepsychiatry solution has improved access to emergency psychiatric assessment for patients in rural areas by facilitating a rapid and sustained recovery for the patients assessed. Even though the DMH had initially anticipated that it would provide more than 2,000 consults each year when it deployed video conferencing systems in 45 to 55 EDs, the number of consults has far exceeded this number. The telepsychiatry network provides significant travel related cost savings for the state of South Carolina along with a reduction in the rate of in-patient emergency department admissions. Participating hospitals have also reported a 55 percent drop in the average length of stay for patients in a behavioral crisis, savings of over $100,000 in the first six months of telepsychiatry participation as well as the direct discharge of 40 percent more ED mental health patients following telepsychiatry consultations. According to Brenda Ratliff, MD, program medical director, Polycom HD video allows the DMH practitioners to see the smallest details. For instance, it will be possible for the physician to zoom in and examine the patient's pupils to determine whether the person may be under the influence of drugs or has had a true psychotic episode. The agency has deployed 16 mobile high definition Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX systems that can be moved to the area in the ED where the patient is waiting. The Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA) will manage and deploy the agency's visual communication solution centrally. The CMA Desktop video collaboration software client is used by the psychiatrists employed in the program to connect from different remote locations. DMH has deployed the Polycom RMX 2000 real-time media conference platform for multipoint calls which enables all of the video-equipped hospitals to connect for training. On the other hand, the Polycom RSS 2000, an on-demand recording, streaming and archiving solution, has been implemented for instruction and training. Carolyn John is a Contributor to TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please columnist page. Edited by Kelly McGuire |