Jared Guadagni - Staff Writer

Susan Eichman, the emergency room nurse manager, checks out the telepsychiatry console.

It's the next best thing to getting a house call from the doctor.

Barnwell County Hospital is one of eight facilities in South Carolina to have a new telepsychiatry consultation service.

"If you can't get to a psychiatrist - then he or she can come to you," said Susan Eichman, the BCH emergency department nurse manager.

Because of statewide cutbacks to mental health, a $3 million Duke Endowment grant is being shared with hospitals across the state for closed circuit television psychiatrist consultations for patients on an encoded dedicated T-1 line.

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health partnered with the South Carolina Health Association to apply for the grant, said Eichman.

The money pays for psychiatrists who operate out of Columbia and Charleston, said Eichman.

"I would talk with the person just like I was seeing him or her in person," said Dr. Brenda Ratcliff from the television monitor.

Ratcliff is one of four psychiatrists at G. Werber Bryan Psychiatric Hospital in Columbia who "see" patients for consultations.

"Patients are really accepting of the equipment - once you starting talking with him or her it's like we're in the room together," said Ratcliff.

Benefits of the equipment are psychiatrists can make a consultation quicker and begin treatment sooner, said Eichman.

The equipment speeds up patient discharges and transfers as well as frees up space in the emergency department, said Eichman.

"We're expecting to see a decrease in the stay of psychiatric patients and they'll also get more specialized care," she said.

Previously, emergency department physicians and Polly Best Mental Health Center workers would collaborate on psychiatric patient diagnosis and treatment, said Eichman.

"Our physicians were more comfortable treating physical injuries rather than psychiatric because it's so specialized," said Eichman.

The consultations will also free up area law enforcement officers who have to watch patients that a probate judge has ordered committed, she said.

Hospital policy and the Joint Commission require in-house one-on-one sitter observation for patients who are to be shipped to a psychiatric hospital as well.

In other BCH news:
• Approved an across the board 5 percent increase on hospital rates beginning Oct. 5.
The rate increase will not affect insurance deductibles.
The increase will give the hospital an estimated $85,000 in additional reimbursements based on its Blue Cross and commercial accounts, according to a letter from the hospital finance office.

• Approved a staff plan redesign to cut costs.
The plan does not discontinue services or cut frontline hospital workers or take away patient beds, said Mary Wisner Valliant, the hospital CEO.
A total of five employees were cut and positions were consolidated so there didn't have to be as many staff reductions.
The plan also hired internally for positions to see what workers could cover open positions, said Valliant.

• Approved $10,500 for Valliant to hire a developer for a hospital Web site.
Half the amount will be paid upfront and the other half will be paid upon the Web site's completion, said Valliant.