Psychiatric Patients with Long Stays in a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Closer Look

Children and adolescents requiring psychiatric hospitalization “board” in emergency department (ED) settings for extended periods while they await transfer to an appropriate setting. To learn more about such children at one ED, researchers retrospectively studied 573 children aged 3 to 18 years with a psychiatric chief complaint, who had an ED stay >24 hours and for whom inpatient psychiatric hospitalization was recommended (mean age, 14; 53% female).

The mean boarding duration was 54 hours, and 17% of patients were discharged home. Nearly half of patients had previously been seen in the ED, and one quarter subsequently visited the ED again. The most common chief complaints were suicidal ideation or attempt (46%) and disruptive behavior (31%…