Princeton House Telehealth Program Earns National Award

Penn Medicine Princeton House Behavioral Health’s telehealth intensive outpatient (IOP) program was named Program of the Year by the Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare, a national organization representing outpatient providers.

Princeton House, which offers IOP and partial hospital programs in addition to inpatient services, was forced to close in-person outpatient services as a safety precaution when the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Jersey in early March 2020. Within nine days of closing, 250 staff members and 600 patients, ranging from 6-year-olds to older adults, were transitioned to a newly developed IOP program that included psychiatric evaluation, medication management, and group, individual, and family therapy.

Since then, Princeton House has provided more than 177,000 telehealth encounters on a secure, HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing platform that patients and staff members say is easy to use. As one of the largest IOP providers in the country, Princeton House is uniquely positioned to make meaningful contributions to understanding the efficacy of IOP services delivered via telehealth.

A growing body of research has shown telehealth is effective in treating mental disorders in traditional one-on-one settings. Yet little information existed on virtual services at the intensive outpatient level of care, where patients generally have more acute psychiatric symptoms and are required to attend group therapy three hours per day, three to five days per week.

Jody Kashden, PhD, Senior Clinical Director, and Peter Thomas, PhD, Vice President, Outpatient Behavioral Health, developed a retrospective study of 10,000 patients who received in-person, virtual, or combined treatment at Princeton House. Thomas presented the results at the Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare’s annual conference in Baltimore on April 12, 2022.

Princeton House’s data showed no significant differences in the safety, efficacy, and patient experience of the virtual programs versus in-person treatment. Patient satisfaction for virtual treatment was high, with 94 percent reporting that their virtual IOP program was helpful and 63 percent saying they would consider using telehealth even if in-person programs were available to them.

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Jennifer McGinley
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