Arkansas hospitals, behavioral health agencies, mobile crisis teams have access to XFERALL to optimize patient placement and transfers
XFERALL is expanding its service area to include Arkansas.
“2022 continues to be a year of growth and expansion for XFERALL,” said Nathan Read, CEO, XFERALL. “More hospitals, behavioral health providers, and community organizations are using XFERALL to deliver a proven solution to the increasingly difficult problem of placing behavioral health patients in appropriate treatment quickly. Today, we are pleased to announce that Arkansas behavioral health providers and facilities will have access to the platform.”
Entities using XFERALL to transfer patients to appropriate behavioral health treatment have seen their wait times drop by as much as 86 percent.
“Arkansas Children’s Hospital is delighted to be one of XFERALL’s first customers in Arkansas,” said Ann Kruger, RN, MBA, interim senior vice president & chief nursing officer. “With XFERALL, we will be able to place children and adolescents experiencing a psychiatric crisis into behavioral health treatment more quickly so they can begin their recovery.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital emergency department wait times for children and adolescents seeking mental health treatment were getting longer, according to an April 2021 study in Pediatrics. Over the course of the decade between 2005 and 2015, the number of children’s ED mental health visits lasting more than 6 hours increased from 16.3 percent to 24.6 percent. The proportion of mental health ED visits lasting more than 12 hours increased from 5.3 percent to 12.7 percent. The need for inpatient and crisis care has only increased during the pandemic. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health.
Using XFERALL’s mobile platform, clinicians no longer have to perform a series of numerous, repetitive, and time-consuming steps to identify facilities with available beds, resources, and clinically appropriate staff to accept patient transfers. Hospitals and others that need to transfer patients and facilities with the capacity to accept those transfers communicate efficiently and directly over the XFERALL app. The result is that they can focus more on patient care, and patients get the essential care they need more quickly.
XFERALL expands the network of available inpatient and crisis stabilization placement options; facilitates timely, clinically appropriate placement; and provides transparency into data trends. XFERALL’s platform also aligns with national best practices to ensure individuals seeking crisis services get access to the right care in the right setting. The platform incorporates national Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recommendations.
“With the number of children and adolescents needing psychiatric treatment at record numbers, hospitals and health care providers need tools today to ensure no child experiences unnecessary delays in obtaining care,” said Shana Palmieri, LCSW, chief clinical officer, XFERALL. “XFERALL gives hospitals and behavioral health facilities the power to be part of the solution to address the pediatric mental health crisis.”