The authors discuss how consultation/liaison psychiatry has promoted
closer cooperation between primary care and psychiatry in the general
hospital setting and has increased physician concern for psychosocial
issues while at the same time creating financial and organizational
problems for consultation/liaison programs. To remedy these difficulties,
the authors propose that all general hospitals that have more than 350 beds
have fully staffed consultation/liaison services and that these services be
funded through third-party reimbursement formulas as an integral
hospital-based service. They outline six potential benefits of their
proposal and suggest that action must be taken now if consultation/liaison
psychiatry is not to suffer the same fate as the community mental health
center movement.
Abstract Teaser