How a health center eliminated the waiting list for psychiatric services

Abstract

A quality improvement project was delivered by a federally qualified health center to improve patient access to psychiatric services. The effort was supported by training and technical assistance provided by the American Psychiatric Association Support and Alignment Network. Over a 3-year period, the collaborative care model (CoCM) and other integrated consultative strategies were implemented. As a result, the waitlist was reduced from 350 patients to 1 patient. The use of the CoCM and other integrated care strategies was successful in eliminating a psychiatric service waitlist in this primary care setting.