Telemedicine Psychiatric Consultation on an Inpatient Obstetrical Labor and Delivery Unit

Purpose Limited access to mental health resources has challenged clinicians in delivering early behavioral health interventions to perinatal populations We describe telepsychiatry consultations to a rural hospital’s labor and delivery unit to demonstrate how consultation-liaison (CL) services during peripartum hospitalization could meet this need Methods One-year data from electronic medical records of women who were at risk of post-partum syndromes and offered a telepsychiatry consult was extracted and reviewed Results A total of 85 consults were conducted via telepsychiatry primarily for depression, anxiety, and medication management Bedside psychotherapeutic interventions and education were provided to 63 patients, medications were initiated for 32 patients, and outpatient referrals were made for 47 patients Conclusion Our results indicate that CL telehealth can successfully engage at-risk mothers in psychiatric treatment Given accelerated telemedicine efforts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, improving access to telepsychiatry for rural, peripartum populations is an important area of development