Initiatives led by faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine aim to proactively identify the behavioral health needs of our patients and provide compassionate, effective care. Our goal is to improve health and wellbeing and mitigate the need for mental health–related visits to the emergency department (ED) and admission to the hospital.

Hospital Readmission Reduction Program

The “5 in 90” Hospital Readmission Reduction Program is a hospital-wide initiative at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island designed to reduce recurrent visits to the ED and multiple admissions to the hospital. Our behavioral health team has been working collaboratively with other departments to create comprehensive plans to reduce the number of repeat ED visits. We utilize a holistic approach to meet the psychiatric and substance needs of these patients and encourage patient–provider communication, case coordination, referrals to outside care management, and more effective patient engagement relating to discharge planning.

Our behavioral health social workers engage in proactive rounding in the ED during which they act as mental health liaisons who provide preventative support and patient-centered behavioral interventions to patients in the ED. During this rounding, our social workers screen, identify, and assess the psychosocial needs of behavioral health patients. They provide a brief initial assessment on the acuity and level of urgency of a patient’s behavioral health needs and expedite those concerns to the appropriate providers when necessary. The goal of this process is to reduce wait time for discharge, offer referrals to treatment, and provide brief interventions focused on increasing insight and awareness regarding behavioral health issues.

Unlike traditional consult–liaison psychiatry models, which tend to patients only after a mental health concern is identified by the medical team, our team engages in a proactive rounding model. Our clinicians are permanently integrated into medical services across a wide variety of hospital settings, where they screen charts for potential mental health issues and participate in collaborative rounding with the medical teams. This care model allows NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island to deliver well-rounded medical care with a mind–body focus.

We have also focused on the detection, prevention, and treatment of delirium since our inception as a department. Delirium is an acute altered mental state common in patients with serious medical illness and is an often-undiagnosed condition that can lead to a significant increase in morbidity and hospital stay for patients. We have developed an evidence-based algorithm for delirium prevention and management. Our work has recently come into fruition with the implementation of a hospital-wide delirium screening process, new delirium order sets for the medical providers, and revamped delirium education for all practicing providers.