WEBINAR | The New ED Throughput Equation: Why Behavioral Health Now Defines Emergency Department Performance

Emergency departments are increasingly on the front lines of the behavioral health crisis — and the impact is reshaping how emergency medicine is practiced. Psychiatric presentations now drive a disproportionate share of emergency department length of stay, boarding, admissions, and repeat visits, creating clinical and operational challenges that traditional ED models were never designed to manage.

In this physician-led Scottsdale Institute panel, President, Iris Medical Group, Dr. Matthew Harbison (Vice President of Care Coordination and Hospitalist Medicine, Memorial Hermann), Dr. Robert L. Trestman (Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine), and Dr. Tom Milam (Chief Medical Officer), Iris Telehealth bring a frontline clinical perspective to the evolving role of behavioral health in emergency care.

Drawing on their experience across emergency medicine, psychiatry, hospital medicine, and care coordination, the panel examines how rising behavioral health demand is redefining emergency department performance — and why improving psychiatric access, clinical decision-making, and care transitions is now central to ED throughput, patient safety, and quality outcomes.

The discussion focuses on practical, physician-driven strategies for managing behavioral health presentations more effectively in the ED, improving disposition confidence, reducing unnecessary admissions and boarding, and strengthening connections to longitudinal care. Attendees gain a clinically grounded view of how leading health systems are adapting emergency care to meet evolving behavioral health needs.