A Short-Term Psychiatric Inpatient Program for Adolescents

Third-party payers have become increasingly unwilling to fund long-term hospitalizations for adolescents. Inpatient adolescent programs have had to develop strategies to treat this difficult patient population much more rapidly. In late 1989 a short-term adolescent treatment program, known as the STAT program, was developed and implemented at a private psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts. The program aimed for a two-to three week length of stay, a reduction of 30 to 50 percent. To accomplish this goal, the program shifted from a treatment-based approach to a focus on crisis management, patient evaluation and stabilization, and transition to outpatient services. Many staff concerns were allayed during the program's implementation. Short-term treatment for adolescents can be viable if appropriate exclusion criteria are developed for admissions and an adequate range of outpatient treatment services are available.