Georgia Hospitals Leverage Health Care Technology to Reduce Wait Times for Patients Needing Inpatient Behavioral Health Care

PRESS RELEASE May 20, 2021 (AUSTIN, Texas) – Working with Georgia hospitals, XFERALL – a leading mobile application and web-based patient transfer platform – reduced patient wait times for inpatient behavioral health care to under one hour – 94 percent faster than the national average, which is conservatively estimated at more than 8 hours.

Using XFERALL, clinicians in acute care hospitals and community-based settings placed patients needing inpatient psychiatric care, on average, within 42 minutes in April 2021.

Even with high hospital emergency department patient census counts due to COVID-19 throughout 2020 and early 2021, wait times for patients needing to be transferred to a behavioral health treatment facility in care settings using XFERALL never exceeded one hour.

“With XFERALL, facilities are able to correct one of the most significant contributors to poor outcomes for behavioral health patients – lack of timely access to appropriate care,” said Shana Palmieri, LCSW, chief clinical officer, XFERALL. “When patients are able to receive immediate, proper treatment, not only ar outcomes improved for patients, but strains on hospital clinicians and other staff are also reduced.”

Using XFERALL’s mobile platform, clinicians no longer have to perform a series of numerous, repetitive, and time-consuming steps to identify behavioral health facilities with available beds, resources, and clinically appropriate staff to accept patient transfers. XFERALL eliminates the need for clinicians to make multiple phone calls or send multiple faxes to identify available care resources. The result is that clinicians can focus more on patient care and patients receive faster access to needed care.

XFERALL gives clinicians the ability to:

  1. Locate a facility with not only an available bed but also clinically appropriate staff and other resources needed for a particular patient’s diagnosis, acuity, level of security needed, and other relevant demographics, such as age and gender.

  2. Upload all relevant clinical documentation one time.

  3. Track transfer time from time of the request to patient arrival at the receiving facility.

  4. Receive relevant post-hospitalization information to ensure follow-up, care coordination, medication adherence, and treatment plan compliance.

“With May being National Mental Health Awareness Month, our goal is to not only increase conversations surrounding mental health and make it a topic that is discussed in every household and community, but to also make sure that momentum is continued year-round,” said Nathan Read, CEO, XFERALL. “The results we’ve seen in states like Georgia are nothing short of inspiring and highlight what can be accomplished when communities come together.”