Mental health clinic offering primary medical care

May 31--In just six months since a clinic opened for Scranton Counseling Center clients, their emergency room visits have dropped substantially because they have better access to health care, according to data collected by the Wright Center.

The Wright Center, which has facilities in Jermyn, Clarks Summit and Scranton, opened a clinic in the Scranton Counseling Center in September to serve its chronically ill clients who did not have access to primary care.

Before the clinic opened, patients, most of whom have high blood pressure or diabetes but no primary care doctor, were in the emergency room nearly three times a month, on average.

Now that they're getting medical attention, they average less than one emergency room visit each month, the center found after monitoring data from September to February on more than 200 patients.

The center estimates more than $800,000 has been saved in Medicare spending because patients are visiting the emergency room less.

Finding transportation to regular medical appointments is the biggest barrier for mental health patients.

"The majority of them use the emergency department and the urgent care as their medical provider," said Terri Lacey, R.N., a Wright Center senior executive in charge of patient safety and quality.

On the other hand, these patients are regular Scranton Counseling clients, sometimes visiting their social workers, psychologists or psychiatrists three days a week.

Lack of access leads to much more serious consequences, said Scranton Counseling Center President Edward Heffron, Ed.D.

"Adults with serious and persistent mental illness ... tend to die earlier than their peers because of undiagnosed, undertreated or untreated medical conditions," he said, citing reports by the World Health Organization and others. "That has really spawned a whole movement nationally to try and integrate physical health and behavioral health."

The clinic, which officials want to expand to accept children and offer laboratory services, is not meant to replace relationships that clients may already have with their doctors, both Mr. Heffron and Mrs. Lacey said. Rather, they want to help people who have no regular contact with a primary care doctor.

The clinic reflects a bigger regional effort to integrate behavioral health with physical health services, one that the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton is pursuing through its behavioral health initiative. The college is developing a behavioral health training program for primary care doctors so they can better handle mental health and addiction problems, as well as telepsychiatry for rural areas and a psychiatry residency program with the Wright Center.

"I applaud them. I think it's a wonderful concept," college President and Dean Steven Scheinman, M.D., said of the Scranton Counseling clinic. "There are many patients who go to Scranton Counseling as the main place they seek care, so for them it's important to bring physical health care to them."

The clinic is open four hours each day, Monday through Friday, for Scranton Counseling clients. Most patients set up their initial visit with help from Scranton Counseling staff.

Contact the writer:

joconnell@timesshamrock.com, @jon_oc on Twitter

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