Research Review

Need for Psychiatric Inpatient and Outpatient Services Grows, Survey Finds

The need for psychiatric services in inpatient hospitals continues to grow, according to the latest annual survey from the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems (NAPHS). The survey reports 2012 data that was collected in 2013 from NAPHS-member organizations. Data were analyzed and reported by Dobson DaVanzo & Associates in Vienna, Virginia.

Trended inpatient hospital admissions, lengths of stay, and days of care all increased over the past year. “While trended inpatient days of care increased by 5.4% since 2011, outpatient services also showed growth with the average number of outpatient visits in 2012 increasing by 6.6% since the prior year,” noted NAPHS President/CEO Mark Covall in the report. “The average number of partial hospitalization visits also increased substantially (14.6%) from 2011 to 2012. Trended utilization days of psychiatric services in residential treatment centers decreased slightly (-3.8%) from 2011 to 2012, with members reporting both a lower number of admissions and a shorter average length of stay in residential treatment facilities in 2012.”

The report provides two distinct views of behavioral health care delivery. One chapter provides a trend analysis that looks at changes from year to year in NAPHS-member hospitals and residential treatment centers reporting over a two-year period. Another chapter provides national averages to give a snapshot of members’ experiences in the reporting year. This chapter also presents selected data by set-up-and-staffed bed categories to help organizations compare their own experiences to those of facilities of a similar size. Data drawn from other major studies is also presented in the Annual Survey to provide context on the prevalence of behavioral conditions. 

— Source: National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems