@article{ref1,
title="How long do adolescents wait for psychiatry appointments?",
journal="Community mental health journal",
year="2015",
author="Steinman, Kenneth J. and Shoben, Abigail B. and Dembe, Allard E. and Kelleher, Kelly J.",
volume="51",
number="7",
pages="782-789",
abstract="Appointment wait times are a neglected dimension of children's access to psychiatry. We systematically examined how long an adolescent waits for a new patient appointment with a psychiatrist for routine medication management. From state directories, we identified 578 providers of adolescent psychiatric care in Ohio. Researchers posing as parents telephoned randomly selected offices, seeking care for a hypothetical 14-year-old patient under different scenarios. Overall, we measured 498 wait times at 140 unique offices. The median wait time was 50 days (interquartile range = 29-81 days). In adjusted models, adolescents with Medicaid waited longer than those with private insurance, especially during the spring (geometric mean = 50.9 vs. 41.9 days; p = 0.02). Wait times also varied markedly by region, with geometric means ranging from 22.4 to 75.1 days (p < 0.01). This study demonstrates that adolescents often experience lengthy wait times for routine care. This methodology represents a useful approach to real-time monitoring of psychiatric services.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0010-3853",
doi="10.1007/s10597-015-9897-x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9897-x"
}