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Mental health and chemical dependency services at US transplant centers
Author(s) -
Niazi Shehzad K.,
Spaulding Aaron,
Vargas Emily,
Schneekloth Terry,
Crook Julia,
Rummans Teresa,
Taner C. Burcin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
american journal of transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1600-6143
pISSN - 1600-6135
DOI - 10.1111/ajt.15659
Subject(s) - medicine , medicaid , psychosocial , mental health , odds ratio , health care , odds , family medicine , psychiatry , logistic regression , economics , economic growth
The purpose of this study was to assess the availability of mental health (MH) and chemical dependency (CD) services at US transplant centers, because appropriate psychosocial assessment and care is associated with better transplant outcomes. We used the 2017‐2018 American Hospital Association survey, Area Health Resource File, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Compare databases to quantify availability of services and examined associations of hospital‐ and health services area‐level characteristics with odds of offering services with generalized linear mixed models. We found that 15% of transplant centers did not offer MH services and 62% did not offer CD services. Hospitals were more likely to offer MH services if they were larger (OR [95% CI]: 1.03 [1.01, 1.06]) and had a lower rate of uninsured patients in the health services area (OR [95% CI]: 0.89 [0.80, 0.99]) and were more likely to offer CD services if they were larger (OR [95% CI]: 1.02 [1.01, 1.03]) or were members of a system (OR [95% CI]: 2.31 [1.26, 4.24]). Additional research is needed to understand whether lack of MH or CD services at transplant centers affects patients’ ability to access comprehensive psychosocial care and whether this affects patient outcomes.