Development of an operational manual for a consultation–liaison psychiatry service

Abstract

The development of a dedicated operational manual for CLP clarified the roles, functions and governance of CLP within the general hospital and mental health systems. The development process facilitated the engagement of key clinicians and administrators of these systems, the determination of quality improvement targets and greater transparency and accountability.

The development of pathways for responding to patient complexity in a liaison psychiatry setting

“…4 There has been recent interest in operationalising aspects of CLP to ensure that internal processes are transparent, reproducible and represent best practice. 5,6 A target that emerged from our quality assurance meetings was developing a system for identifying patients who are clinically complex, and a process of escalation of care to optimise outcomes.…”