NCT05771545

Telepsychiatry to Enable Expedited Disposition of Psychiatric Emergencies

Active, enrolled Results posted Last updated 8 January 2026

What this trial tests

trial testing Telepsychiatry in Psychiatric Emergency in 959 participants. Participants enrolled and being followed up; not accepting new ones.

Timeline

1 July 2023

Primary endpoint
30 December 2024

30 June 2026

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Status	Active, enrolled
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	959
Start date	1 July 2023
Primary completion	30 December 2024
Estimated completion	30 June 2026
Sites	8 locations across Israel

Drugs / interventions tested

• Telepsychiatry

Conditions studied

• Psychiatric Emergency — all drugs for Psychiatric Emergency →

Sponsor

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Psychiatric Emergency. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov

Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.

ED Time Primary · Patients arrive in the ED at a specific time and leave the ED at a specific time. We will compute the amount of time spent in the ED by each patient, up to two weeks.

Amount of time, in hours and minutes, that the patient spends in the ED prior to disposition

Group	Value	95% CI
Pre-Innovation (Usual Care)	106	70 – 159
Innovation (Tele-Psychiatry)	103	65 – 155

Violent Incidents Secondary · Patients arrive in the ED at a specific time. Those who are admitted are eventually discharged. Violent incidents can occur during the entire time spent in the hospital, whether in the ED or on the ward, up to 90 days total.

Adjudicated violent incidents that occur, whether in the ED or on the psychiatry ward. Includes hitting, kicking, throwing, and property destruction

Group	Value	95% CI
Pre-Innovation (Usual Care)	108
Innovation (Tele-Psychiatry)	96

Hospital Length of Stay Secondary · For patients admitted to the hospital through the ED, the beginning time is their arrival to ED, the end is the time of hospital discharge, up to 90 days later.

Length of stay, in days, starting with time of arrival to ED

Group	Value	95% CI
Pre-Innovation (Usual Care)	18	9 – 39
Innovation (Tele-Psychiatry)	23	11 – 41

Sponsor's own description

The goal of this observational study is to examine the effect of using a video link for evaluation of patients in the psychiatric emergency room. Under current Israeli law, the attending physician must come in to physically examine the patient before they can be admitted involuntarily. Patients often de-compensate and even may become violent while waiting for the attending to arrive. Previous studies have shown that evaluation of such patients via video-link has an extremely high concordance with in person evaluation. This study will compare patients who are evaluated via video-link with historical controls evaluated under usual conditions. This is an observational study, which is taking advantage of a change in practice to collect data on two different ways of delivering care, via chart reviews. If successful, this study will show that the video-link is feasible and acceptable to patients and staff. The following hypotheses will be tested:

1. The intervention will result in shorter ED time compared to historical controls.
2. The intervention will result in fewer violent incidents compared to historical controls.
3. The intervention will result in shorter overall hospital length of stay compared to historical controls.

Publications & conference data

2 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Enabling Expedited Disposition of Emergencies Using Telepsychiatry in Israel: Protocol for a Hybrid Implementation Study.
   Shalev L, Bistre M, Lubin G, Avirame K, et al · · 2023 · cited 3× · PMID 37847548 · DOI 10.2196/49405
2. Adapting to the digital age in psychiatry: evaluating change in emergency department nurses and psychiatrists' views toward telepsychiatry for involuntary hospitalization.
   Shalev L, Lubin G, Kirresh S, Barash I, et al · · 2026 · PMID 42206074 · DOI 10.3389/fdgth.2026.1810008