Texas Hospitals, Community Mental Health Organizations Leverage Health Care Technology to Reduce Wait Times for Patients Needing Inpatient Behavioral Health Care

    AUSTIN, TX, May 21, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Working with Texas hospitals, local mental health authorities, and mobile crisis teams, XFERALL, a leading mobile application and web-based patient transfer platform reduced patient wait times for inpatient behavioral health care to under 2 hours – 75 percent faster than the national average, which is conservatively estimated at more than 8 hours.

Using XFERALL, clinicians in hospitals and community-based settings placed patients needing inpatient psychiatric care, on average, within 1 hour and 49 minutes in April 2021.

Even with high hospital emergency department patient census counts due to COVID-19 throughout 2020 and early 2021, wait times for patients needing to be transferred to a behavioral health treatment facility in care settings using XFERALL never exceeded 2 hours and 24 minutes.

"Lack of timely access to appropriate behavioral health care is one of the most significant contributors to poor outcomes for patients experiencing a psychiatric crisis," said Shana Palmieri, LCSW, chief clinical officer, XFERALL. "The faster patients can receive appropriate treatment, the better their outcomes will be. Patients forced to wait in hospital emergency departments often experience worsening of symptoms, which not only impairs their recovery but also increases safety risks for clinicians and other staff."

Using XFERALL's mobile platform, clinicians no longer have to perform a series of numerous, repetitive, and time-consuming steps to identify behavioral health facilities with available beds, resources, and clinically appropriate staff to accept patient transfers. XFERALL eliminates the need for clinicians to make multiple phone calls or send multiple faxes to identify available care resources. The result is that clinicians can focus more on patient care and patients receive faster access to needed care.

"XFERALL puts the power in clinicians' hands to more quickly identify a facility with an available bed and care resources and to transfer the patient efficiently," added Palmieri.

XFERALL gives clinicians the ability to:
1. Locate a facility with not only an available bed but also clinically appropriate staff and other resources needed for a particular patient's diagnosis, acuity, level of security needed, and other relevant demographics, such as age and gender.
2. Upload all relevant clinical documentation one time.
3. Track transfer time from time of the request to patient arrival at the receiving facility.
4. Receive relevant post-hospitalization information to ensure follow-up, care coordination, medication adherence, and treatment plan compliance.

"While May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, we have to continue our conversations surrounding mental health year-round and truly make it a community initiative," said Nathan Read, CEO, XFERALL. "The progress we've seen in improving timely access to care through the combination of efficient intake operations and innovative technology is extremely promising, and we're excited to see more partners across the country embracing this model."

ABOUT XFERALL
Based in Austin, Texas, XFERALL works with hospitals, law enforcement, mobile behavioral health crisis teams, and community mental health agencies to accelerate the patient transfer process so patents access clinically appropriate care faster. The XFERALL mobile application and web-based platform coordinates patient transfers to improve access, timeliness, and quality of care for patients with acute physical conditions, such as stroke, trauma, and complex surgical needs, and for patients with behavioral health conditions. For more information, visit XFERALL.com.

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