(PO-154) (PO-154) Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Quality of Psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Work

The occurrence of Covid 19 pandemic has impacted the work flow of consultation-liaison (CL) services in medical hospitals across the country. Some services became completely telepsychiatry while others became a hybrid of some in-person consultation work and some via telepsychiatry. The impact of this sometimes remote care provided as perceived by the medical services is not well known. It is also unclear how this impacted opportunities, and availability of CL psychiatrists to perform liaison work on the floors. Less time was spent in patient care areas and on the floor, providing CL psychiatrist with less exposure to primary teams and reduced opportunities for face-to-face interactions.

This study examines the impact of changes in the work-flow of CL psychiatry services due to the Covid 19 pandemic on the opportunities to carry out liaison work, quality of psychiatric care, in addition to exploring the challenges and identifying mitigating strategies to building a more effective service.

Methods:
We conducted a survey study to examine the impact of changes in the way psychiatric care was provided by the Consultation-Liaison services across two general medical hospitals in Queens New York, during the Covid 19 pandemic, as perceived by the medical services as well as the consultants themselves.

A short structured anonymous survey was distributed to consulting psychiatrists in two general medical hospitals in Queens New York to quantify how consulting psychiatrists perceive the effects of shifting to telepsychiatry and in-person/hybrid encounters, on their opportunity for liaison work. Another short anonymous survey will be administered to users of psychiatric consultation services, including hospitalists, surgical and palliative care services and others, in order to glean information regarding their experiences of the changes.

Results: Results are pending following administration and statistical analysis of surveys.



Discussion: Challenges to building rapport and treat psychiatric patient during the Covid 19 pandemic will be identified and quantified. Strategies to counteract any potentially adverse effects of tele-psychiatry on time and opportunity for liaison work will be explored and identified. Mitigating strategies will be discussed.

Conclusion: Pending

1) Carlo, F. D., Sociali, A., Picutti, E., Pettorruso, M., Vellante, F., Verrastro, V.,…Giannantonio, M. D. (2020). Telepsychiatry and other cutting edge technologies in Covid-19 pandemic: Bridging the distance in mental health assistance.

2) Futterman, I., Rosenfeld, E., Toaff, M., Boucher, T., Golden-Espinal, S., Evans, K., & Clare, C. A. (2020). Addressing Disparities in Prenatal Care via Telehealth During COVID-19: Prenatal Satisfaction Survey in East Harlem. American Journal of Perinatology, 38(01), 088-092.