23% Of Emergency Psychiatric Visits Result In Hospitalization Among Youth

Among youth with any psychiatric diagnosis, 23.4% of emergency department visits for a psychiatric problem resulted in hospitalization. While most hospitalizations were directly related to clinical factors, the likelihood of hospitalization was also related to non-clinical factors, such as patient demographic characteristics, hospital characteristics, and capacity characteristics. Hospitalization was less likely among younger youth, those with no health insurance, and youth in rural areas. Hospitalization was also less likely when psychiatric consultation services were not available to the emergency department and if there were no pediatric beds within the same county as the emergency service.