Table 1.

Service and Patient Characteristics of Psychiatric Emergency Departments^a

PES characteristics:a
Open 24 hours, 7 days/week:	92%
Attending psychiatrist present at least 8 hours/day:	96%
Attending psychiatrist present 24 hours/day:	26%
Follow up care provided by PES:	51%
Patient mean length of stay:	9.0 hours
% of patients presented involuntarily:	37%
% of patients admitted to inpatient services:	34%
% of patients with Medicare:	14%
Prevalence of patient PES psychiatric diagnoses (all ages):
Psychotic disorder	29%
Primary substance abuse	25%
Major Depression	23%
Dementia	5%
ED Visit Data:b,c,d,e
Psychiatric admitting diagnosis from ED, 65 years +:b
Dementia	38.8%
Mood disorder	29.5%
Schizophrenia/psychosis	19.8%
Substance-related	8.9%
Anxiety disorder	2.3%
Medication-induced	0.7%
ED visits, all ages, 2004:	110.2 million c
% of ED visits by patients 65 years +, 2004:	14.3 c
ED visits per 100 older adults, 2004:	45.4 c
% of ED visits due to mental health condition , 2001:	6.3 d
% of ED visits by institutionalized patients, including NH residents, 2003:* 2.6 e
Psychiatric related ED visits, per 1000 pop., 2001 (1992):d
All ages	23.6 (17.1)
70 years +	32.0 (20.6)
Psychiatric related ED visits, per 1000 ED visits, 2001 (1992):d
All ages	62.5 (48.7)
70 years +	64.1 (46.4)

^*While “institutions” from this source includes prisons, the average age of patients from institutions is clearly elderly: 71 years.

Sources:

^aCurrier and Allen, 2003⁶

^bChapman et al., 2003⁴⁵

^cMcCaig and Nawar, 2006¹⁵

^dLarkin et al., 2005⁸

^eMcCaig and Burt, 2005¹⁸