Array Behavioral Care, a virtual behavioral health provider, launched a new triage and routing capability last week to help providers better respond to patients in need of urgent care.
Chicago-based Array Behavioral Care provides virtual psychiatry and therapy, partnering with hospitals, health systems, community organizations and payers for referrals. The new capability, called Array Rapid Care, offers behavioral health assessment, triage and care navigation support to help frontline providers get patients to the right level of care.
When patients are referred to Array, they connect with a clinician within 30 minutes for a short assessment that analyzes acuity, risk and immediate clinical need. They are then directed to the best next step, whether that be acute behavioral health services, psychiatric consultation, outpatient treatment, crisis stabilization support or emergency care.
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Patients entering outpatient care may be matched with Array’s Care Pathways based on the severity of their symptoms and individual needs. Care Pathways creates personalized care plans for patients. For patients with more severe symptoms or increased risk, Array also offers intensive crisis stabilization services to help them regain stability before transitioning to ongoing care.
“Array Rapid Care gives frontline providers access to behavioral health expertise when a patient’s needs have become urgent, but the appropriate next level of care isn’t yet clear,” said Sara Gotheridge, chief medical officer of Array Behavioral Care.
The company launched Array Rapid Care because there is a “difficult gap” between routine outpatient care and emergency care, Gotheridge added. Frontline providers regularly see patients whose behavioral health needs have become too complex to address in that setting, but who may not require emergency care.
About half of hospital and health system executives say that more than 20% of their ED beds are occupied at any given time by behavioral health patients who could be treated in a less intensive setting, according to Array research.
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“We built Array Rapid Care to help address that gap. … We want to make that transition to the right level of care faster and more clinically informed,” Gotheridge said. “When someone’s behavioral health needs escalate, there can be a lot of uncertainty about what should happen next. We want to reduce that uncertainty for both the patient and the provider by bringing behavioral health expertise into the decision earlier.
“We also want to create continuity beyond that initial interaction,” she continued. “A patient’s needs don’t end once the immediate crisis has been assessed. Being able to connect that patient to appropriate follow-up care, and carry forward what we learned during the initial assessment, allows the next clinician to build on that clinical understanding rather than starting over.”
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