St. Raphael's Campus Psychiatric Consultation Service

The Psychiatric Consultation Service at St. Raphael’s Campus consists of two components: a traditional psychiatric consult-liaison service which provides care on most units of the hospital, and a Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) designated to cover a number of medical units that provides pro-active care by an interdisciplinary treatment team. Both components provide psychiatric evaluation, treatment and, where indicated, referrals to patients admitted to the inpatient units of this campus. All manner of psychiatric and behavioral difficulties are addressed, including the treatment of mood issues arising in the context of medical illness, psychiatric and behavioral disturbances associated with dementia and delirium, and management of patients with underlying psychiatric illness who require hospitalization. Transfer to inpatient psychiatric care is secured when warranted. The service also evaluates decision-making capacity of patients when it is in question. Additionally, the service provides liaison support to hospital caregivers as well as education about psychiatric illness and its management in the medical setting.

The Psychiatric Consultation Service currently is staffed by nearly 2 full-time equivalent psychiatrists as well as two full-time equivalent psychiatric advanced practice registered nurses. In addition, the BIT service has one full-time social worker and a 0.6 FTE clinical nurse specialist. One PGY-2 Yale psychiatry resident and one Yale medical student rotate on the service most of the year.