Study Finds Prolonged and Inequitable Length of Stay in Emergency Department for Children Seeking Mental Health Care

The length of time that children and teens spend in an emergency department for a mental health issue has increased over time, and Hispanic children are nearly three times as likely to have a prolonged visit than non-Hispanic children, according to a Pediatrics study. The article, “Prolonged Emergency Department Length of Stay for U.S. Pediatric Mental Health Visits (2005-2015),” in the May 2021 issue of Pediatrics found that, by 2014-2015, on average 12.7% of visits exceeded 12 hours. Researchers reviewed data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (2005-2015) to compare length of stay for visits among children ages 6-17 with and without a mental health diagnosis. They found the length of stay increased over the 10-year study period to nearly a quarter of visits lasting six hours or more. This increase in length of stay over time was driven primarily by visits with a mental health diagnosis only. Hispanic or Latinx patients were nearly three times more likely to experience an ED stay longer than 12 hours, compared to white non-Hispanic patients. The authors conclude the substantial rise in prolonged length of stay for mental health visits and disparity for Hispanic children suggest that access to pediatric mental health care access is worsening. They suggest that policymakers and health systems work to provide equitable and timely access to pediatric mental health care.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.