Medical Psychiatry Units: A Delphi Consensus Approach to Defining Essential Characteristics

Medical psychiatry units (MPUs), also known as complexity intervention units, represent an important innovation for integrating medical and behavioral health care in the hospital setting, thereby reducing the need for sequential medical and psychiatric hospitalization. As US hospitals face an increased demand for mental health services, interest in the MPU model is gaining momentum. However, there is no shared definition for what constitutes an MPU, and significant variation exists among units across the United States that have been designated as an MPU. The lack of a unified definition for MPUs results in significant variability and poses challenges for creating new MPUs and studying existing MPUs. To address this gap, the Medical-Psychiatry Unit Consortium recruited a panel of MPU experts to conduct a consensus study. The consortium used a survey to assess the relative importance of various characteristics of MPUs within the following categories: structural organization, environment and design, spectrum of care, staffing, and culture of care. After two rounds of a modified Delphi process, consensus was achieved with regard to which characteristics are necessary or preferred vs. not necessary or harmful. The necessary or preferred characteristics include those that would be expected on a general medical unit, such as having cardiac telemetry monitoring capabilities, as well as characteristics typical of a psychiatric unit, such as locked unit doors, locked cabinets for patient belongings, and common area or milieu. Overall, this suggests that an ideal MPU combines the ability to provide acute medical care with acute psychiatric care. Notably, staffing and culture of care emerged as categories with the highest ranking of necessary characteristics, outweighing environment, design, or the breadth of services offered. These findings suggest that MPU experts feel teamwork and having a shared mission are critical components of effective MPUs and highlight the importance of staff recruitment and training.