Open Source Health IT in the Psychiatric Care Environment

Silver Hill Hospital of New Canaan, Connecticut, recently joined a select group of psychiatric hospitals in the United States that have implemented an electronic health record (EHR) system. Founded in 1931, Silver Hill Hospital is a 129-bed not-for-profit psychiatric hospital that provides inpatient and residential transitional living programs for adolescents and adults. Silver Hill brings particular expertise to the treatment of patients with dual psychiatric and substance use disorder diagnoses.

Medical errors in the psychiatric sector can result in significant patient injury, as well as extensive additional costs to the healthcare system. Broadly, EHR solutions are regarded as the technical fix for medical errors, especially medication errors— the most common source of preventable hospital medical errors.