Child Mental Health Consults for Quality Improvement

1. Child Mental Health Consults for Quality Improvement Robert Hilt, MD Director Partnership Access Line, MDT Consult, and 2nd Opinion Consult Services in WA and WY Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Washington August 27, 2012

2. Practicalities of QI programming • Will describe three types of state Medicaid consult programs which address: • rising medication use • increasing costs • questionable or dangerous prescribing • inappropriate foster care treatment planning • poor child psychiatrist access • community need for more assistance

3. Mandatory Medication Reviews #1 To address outlier prescribing

4. Medication Review Triggers • Medicaid’s review “flags” • Created by WA and WY workgroups of experts • Prescription arriving at pharmacy triggers reviews • Examples: • stimulants under age 5 (WA and WY) • methylphenidate (Ritalin) at >120mg/day (WA) or >135mg/day (WY) • risperidone (Risperdal) at >2mg/day for 3-5 year old (WA) or >5mg/day in any age child (WY) (all flags in “DUR” section of care guide at wyomingpal.org and in “DSHS” section of care guide at palforkids.org)

5. Medication Review History • Washington • ADHD medication reviews started 2006 • Antipsychotic medication reviews started 2009 • reviews for >5 meds starting this month • Wyoming • ADHD and antipsychotic med reviews started 2011 • ~1900 reviews completed since 2006

6. Running a Medication Review Program • Lesson 1: Prescriber’s written rationale is usually insufficient to support an authorization • doc-to-doc reviews for better communication • more able to teach best practices • Lesson 2: If do a “stop” at the pharmacy, rapid processing time is vital • Delays undermine collaboration, can interfere with best patient care

7. Running a Medication Review Program • Lesson 3: Delivering a consistent message is a major challenge • Initial multi-center design had to be abandoned • Audits kept finding diverging approaches • Collaborative/educational approach more valued than just “approve vs. deny” • Teaching best practices • Found a review leader needs to be regularly present • Quarterly audits ensure consistency

8. Running a Medication Review Program • Lesson 4: Even high risk regimens can be fiercely defended • i.e. methylphenidate 450mg, or using 9 medications • Lesson 5: Even if well run, many will resent having required reviews • Second Opinion program feedback surveys: • Review was “useful” 53% of the time • Review was “not useful” 27% of the time • (other s reported a “neutral” opinion)

9. Elective Consultation Services #2 To assist the primary care medical home To efficiently leverage use of child psychiatrists in rural areas

10. PAL Consult Process PCP calls PAL consult team with a mental health question on any patient • (8AM-5PM) PAL CAP provides a rapid access phone consult PAL CAP EMR entered advice is faxed to PCP (by next day) PAL rapid televideo consult scheduled ifbothA)desired by PCP B) Medicaid child PAL SW offers resource assistance or a phone consult (by PCP or CAP request) Same day PCP feedback, then a dictated note • PCP=primary care provider • PAL=Partnership Access Line CAP=child & adolescent psychiatrist SW=social work EMR=electronic medical record

11. Telemedicine Equipment

12. Other Aspects of PAL Services • Free psychiatric care education conferences • 4 times a year in WA • 3 times a year in WY • Free, expert reviewed care guide • At palforkids.org and wyomingpal.org • Quarterly fidelity audits and team consult approach to ensure advice is consistent

13. PAL Program Lessons Learned • Lesson 1: PCPs manage very complex issues in rural areas • Usually call PAL at a point of crisis in care • Complex problems • ~2/3rd with “Serious Emotional Disturbance” (CGAS < 50) • ~3 MH diagnoses per patient • Major mental illnesses like true bipolar, schizophrenia • Rural PCPs often don’t feel they need/want that full consult appointment but DO want to know it is available Note: more specific/detailed PAL information is coming soon in an Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine article

14. PAL Program Lessons Learned • Lesson 2: Despite high complexity, care often can remain in the medical home • ~2/3 of the time, we recommended care to remain with the PCP (± a therapist) • Lesson 3: Care coordination is necessary component • ~½ of all callers receive PAL Social Work assistance • Connect to therapists and other resources • Lesson 4: PAL program impacts different part of care system than Second Opinion Reviews • minimal patient overlap

15. PAL Program Lessons Learned • Lesson 5: Actually recruiting providers to use the service is a challenge in rural, very underserved states • i.e. impractical to set up lunchtime meetings to meet all PCPs • CME meetings and word of mouth among colleagues recruit participants • Lesson 6: A small “virtual” team can work • 2 PAL offices, 300 miles apart, televideo connected • Using 2 child psychiatrist FTEs to serve a 1.7 million child region

16. PAL Program Lessons Learned • Lesson 7: PCPs that use the service love it (though not everyone will use it) • Very positive PAL feedback survey data after the calls • Increased the PCP’s mental health care skills • Helped the PCP to manage their patient’s care • More PAL contacts → higher feedback survey scores • Lesson 8: Consults steer kids into more psychosocial services (EBP therapies) • ~9/10 calls recommend new psychosocial treatments • Significant increase in foster children utilizing psychotherapy appointments after the PAL call (WA FFS Medicaid data)

17. PAL Program Lessons Learned • Lesson 9: If open the door to accepting all calls, Medicaid issues still predominate • ~2/3 of calls about Medicaid kids • Lesson 10: PCPs usually call because they seek medication advice • ~½ PAL recommended to start a medication • ~¼ PAL recommended to stop a medication • Example: PAL gave PCPs advice to change antipsychotic prescriptions >200 times (2008-2010)

18. Do Consults Change Antipsychotic Prescribing?

19. PAL & 2nd Opinion Medication Reviews Did Influence AP Prescribing • Fewer kids now on antipsychotics in WA • decrease of 8.6% in all Medicaid children receiving antipsychotic medications (2007-2010) • decrease of 34.7% in the subset of foster care children • decrease in expenditure of ~$300,000 per month on antipsychotics in first 2 years of PAL (2008-2009) and first year of antipsychotic med reviews • During that same 2 years, antipsychotic expenditures increased unaltered for adults in WA Data provided Dr. Jeff Thompson

20. Antipsychotic Use Changes in Washington Medicaid (from 2004-2007, use had been increasing annually)

21. Wyoming MDT Consultations #3 To improve dependent child care planning through telemedicine

22. Challenges per Wyoming DOH • Foster care and CHINS children have MH placement plans made at local court hearings • “MDT Evaluations” • Historically difficult to arrange mental health evaluations prior to court’s clinical placement • Sometimes placed in order to obtain an assessment • often with long lengths of stay • Concerns about the appropriateness of many out of home mental health placements Source: Dr. Jim Bush with DOH

23. Looking for Access • Wyoming has shortage of child/adolescent psychiatrists (now up to 8 total) • In-state child psychiatrists reported having no evaluation capacity for the rapid MDT hearing process • We had a University based consulting team with telemedicine experience, so … Source: Dr. Jim Bush with DOH

24. MDT Psychiatric Consult Process: goal of speed and quality • DFS case worker or GAL faxes an appointment request --Collateral data documents for the consultant • Coordinator sets up appointment, usually within 1 week • Case worker and consultant speak for ~30min prior to meeting patient • Televideo consult appointment in local DFS office --With caregiver, when possible • Final opinion report dictated by the next day 165 done so far…

25. What the MDT Gets • 6-10 page report • Gestalt impression, diagnoses, and general care recommendations • We describe child’s care needs, and the local team decides where that can best happen • Judge and the MDT remain the final arbiter of the placement plan • Our role, and acceptance of it, took a lot of work and time to develop

26. What we found by doing these televideo consultations • Children often had: • Unrecognized problems (i.e. anxiety, ODD, conduct disorders) • High complexity (i.e. mean of 4 diagnoses per child) • Frequent desire by teams for inpatient placements • ~80% of our initial referrals • Less frequently found need for inpatient placements • ~25% of our initial referrals • Only 2 cases so far where a non-inpatient recommended child ended up in inpatient placement within the next 6 months • Translates to more care within community & financial savings

27. MDT Psychiatric Consult Feedback • Initially: local team wariness about the program • Now the DFS case workers praise the service • i.e. Tell us they get as good or better advice within one week than it had been taking them many months and many different providers to obtain before • Encouraging appropriate use of local services • Specific psychotherapy treatment recommendations were made in every case (when a disorder was present) • Recommended seeking medication adjustments from child’s prescribers in ~1/3rd of cases • Less specific as we consult to care plan teams, not to prescribers directly

28. Questions? • Contact info: • Robert.hilt@seattlechildrens.org Note: All programs described were co-developed with WA and WY Medicaid divisions, the support of Dr. Jim Bush and Dr. Jeff Thompson, and administrative support of Jim Myers (Seattle Children’s)