• Bharath Chakravarthy, Michael Menchine, Daniel E Thompson, Sindhya Rajeev, and Barbara-Jean Santos.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Irvine School of Medicine, University of California, Orange, CA, USA. bchakrav@uci.edu
• Crisis. 2013 Jan 1;34(5):354-62.

BackgroundMental illness is prevalent, disabling, and costly. Emergency department (ED) visits for mental health-related reasons are on the increase.AimsDetermine the level of agreement between emergency physicians and psychiatrists regarding psychiatric patient disposition.MethodWe conducted a prospective, observational study at a private university hospital ED from October 2008-April 2009 using a convenience sample of patients of all ages with psychiatric complaints who received formal psychiatric consultation during their ED visit. The emergency physician completed a data sheet prior to psychiatric consultation, assessing the likelihood of admission for psychiatric evaluation. We evaluated the positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the emergency physician admission decision for all patients before psychiatric consultation, compared with the patients' actual disposition as determined by the consulting psychiatrist.ResultsThe study captured 230 subjects, 53% of whom were suicidal patients. 74% of patients were eventually admitted. The emergency physician decision to admit for inpatient psychiatric evaluation had a PPV of 87.3% (CI 81.4-91.9%) and an NPV of 66.7% (CI 52.9-78.6%) compared to the psychiatrist decision for the total sample, and a PPV of 90% (CI 82.4-95.1%) and an NPV of 69.6% (CI 47.1-86.8%) for suicidal patients. Additionally, the κ score, a measure of agreement between emergency physician disposition decision and psychiatrist disposition decision, was 0.530 (Cl 0.404-0.656). 95% of patients with an ED assessment of "definitely admit" were eventually admitted by the psychiatrist.ConclusionEmergency physician disposition has a high PPV (87.3%) and a moderate NPV (66.7%) compared to psychiatrist disposition.

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