PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center is a rural Critical Access Hospital that created an integrated behavioral health care program in response to its community health needs assessment.
The program is comprised of a behavioral assessment program embedded in the primary care clinic, complimented by a tele-psychiatry program as well as psychological follow-up of behavioral health care services for those patients.
The program serves all patients who access primary care at PeaceHealth Peace Island, which also includes a community-wide behavioral and psychiatric “service portal” that further assists patients in better accessing primary care services. Tele-psychiatry specifically serves hard-to-reach San Juan County patients by offering weekly psychiatric services that they would otherwise not be available to the community. The assessment and follow-up services further help with care coordination and facilitate access to services, lower cost of services and better quality of care. (Mary Kay Clunies-Ross)
