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Out‐of‐area placements in acute mental health care: the outcomes
Author(s) -
Galante Joao R,
Humphreys Rosamund,
Molodynski Andrew
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
progress in neurology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.19
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1931-227X
pISSN - 1367-7543
DOI - 10.1002/pnp.528
Subject(s) - harm , medicine , mental health , acute care , raising (metalworking) , quality (philosophy) , health care , psychiatry , psychology , economics , economic growth , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology , geometry , mathematics
Out‐of‐area placements (OAPs) are heavily relied upon by the NHS to meet growing demand but they are expensive, disruptive for patients, and may reduce quality of care and outcomes for patients. Here, the authors compared 50 patients who used acute OAPs with 50 patients admitted to an acute bed locally as regards length of stay, readmission rates, contact with services and levels of self‐harm in the following 12 months. The results were substantially worse in key respects for patients who go to OAPs, raising further questions about their quality and the economic impact to the NHS.