The Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) celebrated its fourth anniversary on Wednesday, December 18. 2024.
The PES unit features a calm, compassionate environment away from the main Nebraska Medicine Emergency Department. The PES’s goal is to stabilize patients and swiftly refer them to community partners for appropriate treatment while avoiding unnecessary inpatient admissions.
Since it opened in the fall of 2020, the unit has had more than 7,700 visits from patients seeking emergency psychiatric care.
Ashish Sharma, MD, is the medical director of the PES. Claudia Moore, MD, continues to be the associate medical director. Amy Mead, MBA, is the director of emergency, psychiatric emergency, and observation services for Nebraska Medicine. Maggie Cote, BSN, RN, is the nursing supervisor, and Jennifer Sparrock, LCSW, LIMHP, has been the PES manager since the unit opened.
“We have a solid well-established staff, so now we can start asking how can we do things better? How can we provide the best care for our patients? What else can we do to make the patient’s lives better outside of what we are already doing? Those are some of questions we are always looking to answer,” Sparrock said.
In October 2023, a ‘Fast Pass’ pilot program was launched to further assist in rapidly screening and assessing those presenting in the emergency department with minimal risk for complicated medical considerations with a goal of transfer in less than one hour.
Sparrock said after the implementation of Fast Pass patients are moved from the emergency room to the PES 50 percent faster which helps both the patient and the emergency room.