Our Department has a longstanding history of practice and innovation in telepsychiatric care. Last year alone, we provided more than 15,000 telehealth consultations to primary care providers and other clinicians throughout Washington and the five-state WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) region. Building on our success, we’ve launched a new Psychiatry Consultation and Telepsychiatry Program called UW PCAT to meet the increasing mental health needs of our region.

Led by Marc Avery, MD, UW PCAT will offer Telepsychiatric Consultation Services to outpatient primary care teams as well as Inpatient “Hospital to Hospital” Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison Services to patients who are admitted to community hospitals without access to on-site psychiatric care and consultation. Cara Towle, RN MSN was recently hired as Associate Director of the program after working as Director of Telehealth Services at UW Medicine for fifteen years. Contracts are already in place with Capitol Medical Center in Olympia and Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor, and a growing number of negotiations are underway.