On January 26, the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and GNYHA held the Psychiatric Services and Clinical Knowledge Enhancement System (PSYCKES) Quality Collaborative Outcomes Conference, concluding their first behavioral health–focused quality collaborative project.

Over the last year, approximately 25 hospital-based OMH-certified clinics participated in the joint OMH/GNYHA PSYCKES Quality Collaborative, which focused on individuals with cardiometabolic health issues who are prescribed certain high-risk psychotropic medications. Through this project, when appropriate, patients identified as having cardiometabolic quality concerns were transitioned to lower-risk psychotropic medications to reduce or mitigate cardiometabolic effects with the goal of improving a patient’s overall health status.

Teams in the Collaborative reported positive results with individual patients and with implementing sustainable system changes within their institutions. Examples of the latter include adopting checklists and templates; reducing initiation of certain high-risk psychotropic medications; improving patient engagement and participation in treatment planning and decision making; reducing initiation of certain high-risk psychotropic medications in inpatient settings, both psychiatric and medical, for individuals with cardiometabolic health issues; increasing communication with medical and primary care providers; improving patient health status monitoring; and modifying electronic prescribing systems.

While the OMH/GNYHA PSYCKES Quality Collaborative was focused on individuals with Medicaid, participating hospitals reported that positive outcomes are being applied to patients across all payer categories. At the outcomes conference, participants were briefed on the next OMH/GNYHA PSYCKES quality collaborative project, which will focus on high-utilization patients and readmissions. Additional information will be forthcoming.