UTHCPC Procedures - Behavioral Health Outpatient Community Admissions

Date of Last Review 01/08/04

Outpatient clinical staff communicates with the referring clinician, patient, or other referral source and documents referral information using the outpatient Evaluation Tool.

Based on referring information, outpatient staff makes a decision to request a patient evaluation visit and schedules an evaluation appointment with the patient.

Process

The process of deciding whether a patient is eligible for admission is as follows:

Stage

Description

The patient reports to Patient Registration at the appointed time.

Outpatient (OP) staff conducts an admissions initial screen, including financial screen.

This table describes what Patient Registration staff and Outpatient staff do with the patient:


IF the patient...	THEN...
Needs inpatient admission	Admission staff refers the patient to HCPI or the Crisis Clinic.
Does not meet the inpatient admission criteria but meets the OP admission criteria	OP physician evaluates the patient for admission to outpatient programs.
Does not meet the criteria for inpatient or OP	OP staff communicates with the original referring clinician.

Pre-admit record

Admission staff keeps a pre-admit record on all patients screened in Patient Registration. If the staff admits a patient, the pre-admit record will become a part of the admission record.

Patient walk-in

If a patient walks-in for assessment and needs to be screened immediately, Patient Registration staff screens the patient at that time. Otherwise, the patient is provided with the next available appointment.

Behavioral Health Outpatient Community Admissions

Introduction

Process

Pre-admit record

Patient walk-in

Related standards