Behavioral health patient boarding remains a widespread challenge in emergency departments nationwide. Boarding typically occurs when patients with mental health conditions are held in the ED while awaiting further evaluation, admission, or transfer. This practice negatively affects patients, clinicians, and overall ED operations. Given the persistence of behavioral health boarding, all ED personnel including physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses benefit from focused education on the evaluation and management of behavioral health patients in the emergency setting. This activity emphasizes critical thinking in the assessment and treatment of behavioral health patients, explores the causes and impact of boarding, reviews admission criteria, and examines alternative management strategies. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to appraise the scope of behavioral health patient boarding in the ED, evaluate admission criteria for behavioral health patients, and formulate alternative treatment options for behavioral health patients awaiting disposition.
Credit & MOC Details
Credit information is provided by the course provider. We recommend confirming credit eligibility with the provider or your licensing board before starting the activity.
Credit types
MOC types
FDA REMS
Qualifies for MIPS
Target Specialties
Specialties served/covered
- Addiction Medicine
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Clinical Informatics
- Clinician Wellness & Burnout
- Communication & Shared Decision-Making
- Critical Care Medicine
- Diagnostic Radiology
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- General & Adult Psychiatry
- General Internal Medicine
- General Operative Anesthesia
- General Pediatrics
- General Surgery
- Geriatric Medicine
- Health Equity & Inclusion
- Hospital Medicine
- Infectious Disease
- Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Medical Genetics & Genomics
- Medical Leadership & Administration
- Neurology
- Neurosurgery
- Obstetrics & Gynecology
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- Orthopaedic Trauma
- Patient Safety & Quality Improvement
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Pediatric Infectious Diseases
- Pediatric Urology
- Practice Management & Ethics
- Surgical Critical Care
- Trauma Surgery
- Urology
- Vascular Neurology
- Vascular Surgery
- Anesthesiology
- Cardio-Vascular
- Cross-Specialty
- Emergency & Critical Care
- Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Medical Subspecialties
- Neurology
- Ob/Gyn
- Orthopedics
- Pediatrics
- Primary care
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
- Surgery
- Urology
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- Case-based learning
- Credit · Up to 1.5 credits
- Fee · varies
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ReleasedJan 1, 2026
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Last day to claim creditJan 1, 2029 2 years left
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Society of Hospital Medicine Structures, Strategies, and Initiatives to Address ED Boarding Challenges
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CQI +1 Eat, Sleep, Console On-Boarding and Annual Competency Training
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Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AzAAP) Building Primary Care Providers’ Capacity to Address Pediatric Emotional and Behavioral Health
