A case study with PrairieCare CEO Todd Archbold, LSW, MBA.
Children’s hospitals across the U.S. are embedding behavioral health services in primary care and community-based settings to intervene earlier and reduce long-term risks. The effort is aimed at addressing the sharp rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal behavior among youths, according to a report from the American Hospital Association.
The report outlines five case studies of hospitals integrating behavioral health services into pediatric care, including colocating clinicians in pediatric clinics, partnering with schools through telehealth and pairing behavioral health support with pediatric specialty care.
Below is the excerpt for PrairieCare’s Mental Health Collaboration Hub (MHCH). Read the full report from the American Hospital Association here.
Why Does It Matter?
More than 80% of Minnesota counties are designated as mental health treatment shortage areas. Across the country, for Medicaid-enrolled youth, more than 1 in 10 mental health–related ED visits last more than two days. Before the Mental Health Collaboration Hub (MHCH), no statewide system followed individual children who boarded in emergency departments, so providers couldn’t know what care they eventually received or how their cases were resolved. Moreover, there was no organized forum for community providers to connect around service capability and capacity, so providers had to make dozens of phone calls only to discover facilities were full or had outdated information. The MHCH platform provides aggregate analytics about treatment needs, service capacity and boarding times. It became the first statewide system to track these cases and provide data about the scope of the boarding crisis.
What Is It?
The MHCH is made up of a web-based database of more than 275 participating provider organizations, including Minnesota’s largest health systems, county agencies and treatment centers. Participating children’s hospitals include Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, Children’s Minnesota and Gillette Children’s, both in St. Paul. The platform matches children and adolescents in prolonged boarding situations with residential facilities, group homes, psychiatric hospitals and crisis units. Any health provider or human services agency in the state can register their organization and build a profile to interact within the database.
Hospitals and emergency departments upload de-identified information about each patient, including age, diagnosis, risk factors, insurance coverage and placement needs. Treatment facilities separately update their profiles with current bed availability, accepted insurance coverage and the types of patients they can serve. The database compares those details and suggests potential matches between patients and facilities. Providers can also flag specific barriers, such as aggression or guardianship issues, when they enter a case. The system uses those staff-entered tags to refine the matches. These cases typically involve youth with severe mental illnesses and complex behavioral issues such as aggression, self-harm or suicidality. Most have multiple psychiatric diagnoses; many are in foster care and have histories of trauma. The database surfaces potential matches immediately, but the coordination of admissions usually take two to three weeks as the receiving facility reviews the case; the patients’ insurer authorizes coverage; the legal guardian or county signs consent; and the care team confirms a bed and schedules transport.
In addition to using the database, many of the same providers stay engaged through weekly video calls convened by the Metro Health and Medical Preparedness Coalition, a Twin Cities partnership that supports MHCH. The calls typically draw 30 to 40 frontline providers, such as social workers, case managers and clinicians from participating organizations, to review active cases and work through placement challenges. Turnout varies depending on the number and urgency of cases.
How Is It Funded?
PrairieCare built and launched MHCH operations under a $300,000 Minnesota Department of Health Pediatric Mental Health Access Program grant through the Health Resources and Services Administration, awarded in 2022. In 2025, the Minnesota state legislature committed $750,000 to fund bridge services, including home-based care, additional facility staffing, and care coordination, so children can safely leave boarding situations while waiting for treatment beds.
Impact
Organizations report a 55% reduction in boarding time. The Hub has processed more than 500 cases, with most successfully discharged to appropriate care settings. Emergency department capacity improvements translate to significant cost savings and improved patient flow.
Lessons Learned
MHCH emerged from grassroots stakeholder calls, creating trust and shared urgency even among competing organizations and before any platform existed. Attempts to expand MHCH to adult populations and into longer-term care pathways are underway but will depend on strong community relationships. Because the Hub operates as a free public utility, smaller organizations are able to participate.
Originally published on Becker’s Behavioral Health and American Hospital Association.