The South Carolina Department of Mental Health's Telepsychiatry Consultation Program was awarded the 2012 Outstanding Rural Program of the Year by the South Carolina Office of Rural Health. The telepsychiatry program provides remote psychiatric consultations and evaluations to rural hospitals through live video connections, allowing patients to be stabilized more quickly and reducing hospital stays. It has saved over $21.7 million since 2010 and increased adherence to follow-up care by 200%. The program aims to improve access to mental healthcare in rural communities.

1.
Contact: Sherri Cox, Communications Coordinator FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 803‐454‐3850, Ext. 2011
Email: cox@scorh.net
SC Department of Mental Health’s Telepsychiatry Consultation Program
Presented the 2012 Outstanding Rural Program of the Year Award
The SC Department of Mental Health’s Telepsychiatry Consultation Program was named the South
Carolina Office of Rural Health’s 2012 Outstanding Rural Program of the Year on October 10th
at an
awards luncheon held during the SCORH annual conference in Hilton Head. This award is presented to a
rural clinic, practice, or other program for either an educational, direct service or supportive initiative
that has positively impacted a community’s health services.
The South Carolina Department of Mental Health's Telepsychiatry Consultation Program is the first
statewide behavioral health telemedicine model of its kind in the United States. Prior to the advent of
this program, the standard means of delivering Behavioral Health assessments in SC Emergency
Departments was to make a request for support through a network of seventeen community mental
health centers and numerous clinics. Mental health professionals would then be dispatched to physically
go on‐site at the many of the rural Hospitals to screen and refer the patient to the appropriate aftercare
service site.
This approach, while effective, wasn't timely; and, most often resulted in patients languishing in the
Emergency Departments for multiple days, especially over weekends, occupying bed space as "held
patients", reducing the Emergency Department’s capacity to serve other non‐behavioral health patients
presenting for serious conditions, and resulting in increased costs to treat Behavioral Health patients in
the Emergency Departments ‐ especially in the all‐too‐limited Emergency Departments of rural
hospitals.
Now, Telepsychiatry introduces much‐needed medications to stabilize patients sooner rather than later
and reduces lengths of stay in the Emergency Department; 43 percent of patients are discharged the
same day that they enter the hospital. It has also shown direct cost‐savings to hospitals and realizes
indirect savings by reducing patient transportation costs (both internally and externally to the Hospital).
Taxpayers have saved over $21.7 million since the Programs introduction in 2010. The Program reduces
recitivism rates by a significant amount following the initial telepsychiatry consultation; adherence to
post‐hospitalization outpatient care programs has increased 200 percent compared to pre‐Program
numbers!
The South Carolina Department of Mental Health's mission is to support the recovery of people with
mental illnesses, giving priority to adults with serious and persistent mental illness and to children and
adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. Telepsychiatry is but the latest proven effort the
Dedicated to improving access to quality healthcare in rural communities.

2. Agency uses to serve approximately 100,000 citizens with mental illnesses, including more than 30,000
children and adolescents.
The SC Office of Rural Health (SCORH) is a 501(c)3 non‐profit organization dedicated to ensuring
equitable access to quality healthcare for all rural South Carolinians. Since 1991, the SC Office of Rural
Health has been working to improve the health status of rural and underserved people throughout the
state.
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