Are There Other Options?: Child and Adolescent Telepsychiatry Services for Rural Population

This study compared University of Missouri child and adolescent telepsychiatry services patients' specific zip codes to child and adolescent psychiatrists' practice locations to learn if telehealth was an appropriate option for this group of patients. In demographically and geographically diverse state such as Missouri, patients in rural areas may have limited or no access to timely, affordable and quality care. Many large urban health-care institutions have turned to telehealth as a means of providing equal access to care for all population, no matter where they choose to live. The management analyst system Cognos/Analyzer was used as a data source. Patient- and provider-specific zip codes were processed using GeoKettle software, and ArcGIS explorer was used for map visualization. While patients utilizing child and adolescent telepsychiatry services come from various parts of the state, providers are mostly clustered in urban locations along the Interstate 70. This greatly limits access to specialty care for rural and other vulnerable populations. Telehealth provides adequate and timely access to child and adolescent psychiatry services for the youth that may otherwise not be able to get needed care. Barriers such as mental health crisis and access to care for rural population have been more or less successfully addressed by telehealth for several decades now. However, the shortage of specialty physicians adds an additional layer of complexity to this issue. Health-care organizations with informatics tools such as telemedicine need to focus their efforts on maximizing usage to allow more access for the underserved population.