Our Department has been conducting an inventory of behavioral health outpatient services across UW medicine in conjunction with the UW Performance Improvement/LEAN team, led by Arkan Kayihan. Referred to as the “consolidation and expansion” project, driving factors include a past need to 1) consider consolidation of our two separate psychiatry resident clinic programs (HMC and UWMC) into a single site, and 2) explore expansion of services to meet the growing demand for outpatient services as UW medicine expands its Accountable Care Network (ACN) commitments.

The analyses showed that hospital based-inpatient, consultation/liaison services, and ED services are our clinical services priorities (approx. 80%). For outpatient services, consultation and Collaborative Care are the predominant modality as expanding our integrated care approach to all UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics has been a top priority. Valley Medical Center’s existing outpatient clinic provided valuable data as it currently provides over twice the volume of outpatient services as HMC and UWMC combined and has a more robust staffing model.

The project then examined anticipated demand for outpatient behavioral health services that will come from existing primary care clinic patients needing services outside the scope of the integrated care model, as well as volumes from the Boeing Accountable Care Network contract and recently established State Health Care Authority CAN contract. We anticipate volumes will rise from approximately 7,000 annual visits across UWMC and HMC to 20,000. To accommodate this need, projections were made for additional staffing and space needs, with an estimation that we will need to expand clinical staffing by several positions, primarily in the area of adding LICSWs and psychiatric nurse practitioners to the psychiatry and psychology staffing we currently have.

With the analyses completed, the UW medicine strategic planning committee is being asked to provide some guidance on whether the consolidated single clinic approach will best meet the needs of the network and if so, where it would be best located.