For Health Professionals

Director: Patrick T. Triplett, M.D.

The Emergency Department at The Johns Hopkins Hospital is a busy Level-One trauma center serving the needs of a diverse population and often acutely ill patients. Given the nature of the services provided here, we do not advise referral to our Emergency Department for routine care or evaluation. The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has mechanisms in place for outpatient evaluations of a wide variety of psychiatric conditions as well as for elective, less emergent admissions to our inpatient units. Please contact the psychiatry admissions office at (410) 955-5104 for additional information about arranging admissions to the inpatient services.

In cases of psychiatric or other emergencies, we recommend referring your patient to the nearest emergency room.

For non-emergent consultation and evaluation, we recommend referral to one of our outpatient clinics.  For referral for psychiatric admission to one of our inpatient units, please contact the psychiatry admissions office. For emergency evaluations, we recommend directing the patient to an emergency room. We do not recommend bypassing other hospital emergency departments during an emergency situation in order to get an evaluation at Johns Hopkins. 

For inpatient admissions, always check first to see that the patient’s insurance company will cover the cost of the admission before sending the patient directly to the Emergency Department. This can be verified by contacting our admissions office. It is important that the patient know before admission how much of the hospital costs and physicians’ fees will be covered by insurance.

Billing Information - click here for information

Our inpatient psychiatric services do accept transfers from other hospitals. This process is coordinated through our admissions office. There are times when patients may be directed to the Johns Hopkins Emergency Department if, upon referral, they are deemed too unstable for direct admission to one of our inpatient units.

For Johns Hopkins affiliated physicians:  Send patients to the emergency room only if they are medically, surgically and/or psychiatrically unstable and in need of evaluation before admission. Direct admissions may be facilitated through the admissions office during regular business hours. If sending a patient to the emergency room, always call 5-2280 and speak with the Emergency Department Attending Physician to confirm the referral to the Emergency Department. A courtesy call to the Psychiatry resident in the Emergency Department and Patient Data Coordinator (PDC), as well as provision of any available records, will also expedite the process.

Click here to see information for patients and families about psychiatric care in the Emergency Department.