Telepsychiatry, or telemedicine, services at Denver Health allow emergency physicians in Colorado, that otherwise have minimal or no access to psychiatric services, to have immediate consultation with a board-certified psychiatrist, specifically working in the field of emergency psychiatry.
Denver Health is the only hospital in the state of Colorado that has emergency psychiatrists seeing patients 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year as part of our expanded Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES).
Our emergency room telepsychiatry providers offer a quick consultation around specific questions, such as safety risk and acute treatment. Many suicidal patients can be helped in their crises and safely discharged out of the emergency department (ED) without the need for admission. This directly affects length of stay and boarding in EDs.
At the Denver Health PES, our admission rate is 24%, and we only see patients who are suicidal, homicidal or gravely disabled; all other patients are diverted to urgent care. In the case of boarders, we can also provide specific treatment recommendations.
Our Specialty Areas
- Child & adolescent
- Geriatric
- Addiction
- Forensic
- Psychosomatic medicine
- Ashley Curry, MD
- Audrey Dumas, MD
- Kenneth Novoa, MD
- Daniel Severn, DO - Medical Director, Telepsychiatry
- Scott Simpson, MD, MPH - Medical Director, Psychiatric Emergency Services
