ALT Lindsey Monteith presenting at VA Research Day

ALT Preventing suicide among women Veterans talk

ALT Outreach table at VA Research Day at VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System

ALT Intro remarks at VA Research Days

ALT Dr Pam Rice welcomes everyone and thanks the organizers

ALT Chief of Staff opening remarks

ALT We investigated whether use of inpatient occupational therapy (OT) was associated with reduced risk for 30-day psychiatric readmission in VHA. We conducted a secondary analysis of VHA medical record data for Veterans who received inpatient psychiatric care from 2015 to 2020 (N=176,889). Relatively few Veterans received inpatient psychiatric OT (26.2%), and 8.4% were readmitted within 30 days. Compared with Veterans who did not receive inpatient psychiatric OT, those with 1, 2, 3, or 4 or more encounters were significantly less likely to be readmitted within 30 days. These findings were consistent across all sensitivity analyses. Veterans who received inpatient OT services were less likely to experience psychiatric readmission. A clear dose-response relationship between inpatient psychiatric OT and readmission risk was not identified. Findings suggest that OT services may facilitate high-value inpatient psychiatric care in the VHA.