GME Patient Safety Quality and Innovation Symposium

Over the last few decades, pediatric visits for mental health concerns have been rapidly increasing in the United States with recent studies suggesting that the number of mental health emergency department (ED) visits from 2012 to 2016 was four times greater than ED visits for other medical concerns. This crisis has only worsened in the waning emergent phase of the COVID-19 pandemic; many patients experience extended wait times and often spend days in the ED awaiting placement and stabilization. Rady Children’s Hospital houses a psychiatric emergency department within the emergency department (ED) to evaluate and stabilize patients in acute mental health crises. Pediatric emergency departments rarely offer therapeutic interventions or protocols for patients awaiting evaluation or placement. Our goal is to implement psychosocial and therapeutic modalities as a crisis intervention to improve perceived stress and the ability to manage stressors.