Successfully Treating Pediatric Behavioral Health Patients In the Emergency Department Setting

For many pediatric behavioral health patients in Western Kentucky, they often present to the emergency department after an exacerbation of a specific illness but they are not treated in the local hospital. The pediatric behavioral health patients have to be sent to another facility for their treatment because the local hospitals do not treat pediatric patients but there are other ways to treat them besides sending them to another facility. The purpose of this research study was to find a way to begin treating the pediatric behavioral health patients in Western Kentucky in the local hospitals without having to send them to another facility.