Referral and Utilization Patterns for Psychiatric Related Visits to the Pediatric Emergency Department

Pediatric psychiatric emergencies appear to have reached epidemic proportions over the past 10 years. ED visits related to mental health problems are known to be resource intensive, but data in this area has mainly occurred at individual sites. The aim of this retrospective chart review was to describe the patterns of referral and utilization of ED resources for children with a psychiatric related visit presenting to PECARN EDs. The findings of this study were presented at the Pediatric Ambulatory Society Annual Meeting in 2007. The main manuscript was published in Pediatric Emergency Care (2009).