Cutting Psychiatry Wait Times by 85%

A ten-minute phone call dropped the new-visit wait from ten months to six weeks

STUDY: Guaiana G et al, Community Mental Health Journal 2026 

STUDY TYPE: Quality improvement initiative

FUNDING: Independent

Background

As the outpatient psychiatry wait-lists ballooned after the pandemic, this Canadian community hospital tried something different. Instead of scheduling every new visit for an hour regardless of complexity, it employed a social worker to sort referrals and let psychiatrists handle the simple ones by phone.

The Study

• One Canadian community center reviewed 687 outpatient psychiatry referrals over seven months.
• A dedicated triage social worker sorted each referral into a full assessment, a redirect to another service, or a short psychiatrist-led phone consult with the referring physician.
• Phone consults were reserved for focused questions, like a medication adjustment, with no active suicidal ideation or diagnostic uncertainty.

Results

Of the 687 referrals:

• 72% went on to a psychiatric assessment
• 28% got redirected elsewhere (eg, PCP or community mental health agencies)

Among those who got a psychiatric assessment:

• 15% were handled through a brief phone consult (average 10 minutes)
• 85% received a standard assessment (60-90 minutes)

With this new system, the frequency of standard assessments jumped from about one a month to 12 to 15 a month. Average wait times fell from roughly 10 months to about 6 weeks. No-show rates didn’t change.

Practice Implications

1. Many patients suffer unnecessary waits for simple questions that can be resolved in a brief visit. After that, they can return to primary care or schedule a fuller assessment.
2. Systems like this that prioritize their needs allow everyone to benefit, decreasing wait-times for all.