At PrairieCare, we are constantly evolving to better serve our community with high-quality, individualized mental health services. Over the last few months, we have revisited inclusion and exclusion criteria for our inpatient psychiatric hospital in Brooklyn Park. These updates are already helping reduce barriers to care, shorten wait times, and create smoother transitions between hospital and outpatient treatment.
Our team is also embracing a “treatment to remission” philosophy by achieving long-term healing, rather than focusing solely on stabilizing a crisis. By pairing this approach with measurement-based care, our team can better track progress, adjust treatment, and ensure that patients receive the most appropriate support at the right time.
In this Q&A, PrairieCare’s Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Wall, MD, shares why these initiatives matter, how they’re being put into practice, and what he hopes these changes will mean for psychiatric care in Minnesota.
What You’ll Learn
- How have PrairieCare’s inclusion and exclusion criteria changed?
- What does “treatment to remission” mean in mental healthcare?
- What is measurement-based care and how does it guide treatment decisions?
- How does PrairieCare’s Care Pathways provide support during relapses or different life stages?
Quick Read
PrairieCare can now support more patients needing diagnostic clarification, complex medication adjustments, or behavioral help tied to mental health conditions. Our expanded inclusion criteria means that more patients will be able to access inpatient care and move smoothly between our hospital and outpatient treatment.
Patients and families will experience fewer barriers, shorter waits, and more substantial support when moving between levels of care. Overall, our community benefits from a more consistent and responsive mental health system.
We are also embracing a “treatment to remission” philosophy—aiming for full recovery, not just stabilization. With measurement-based tools, our teams can track progress, adjust care, and support patients through different stages of life. The goal is lasting healing, reduced symptoms, and better outcomes for both patients and families.
What updates have been made to our inclusion/exclusion criteria at our hospital?
We’ve expanded the criteria for who can be admitted and benefit from our hospital environment and expert teams. These updates include being able to accept patients who need help with diagnostic clarification, complex medication adjustments, or behavioral issues tied to mental health conditions.
As a freestanding psychiatric hospital, we can’t manage serious medical problems, so it wouldn’t benefit the patient to be accepted in those situations. However, we are carefully tracking situations where we aren’t able to say yes. If we can’t say yes now, we are challenging ourselves to figure out what we could change to help similar patients in the future.
What will these updates mean for our community?
These changes allow us to help more people in Minnesota to access appropriate care quickly, especially during tough times. Patients and families should see shorter wait times as patients step down from the hospital to one of our outpatient programs, like a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). Overall, our teams are building a stronger and more consistent system where mental health services and programs are easier to access.
What inspired our “treatment to remission” philosophy? What does remission mean in the context of mental health?
“Treatment to remission” means that we are aiming for complete healing, not just stabilizing crises. To support this approach, we are using improved tools to track each individual’s progress, to further our goal of helping them find lasting recovery.
Remission in mental healthcare means that symptoms are gone or at very low levels, so people can live “normally” again without ongoing issues. While we can’t really “cure” mental illnesses, we can help reduce symptoms to a minimum (absence of or reduced symptoms for at least eight weeks) using team care approaches, skill-building, medication interventions, and family support.
How are we applying a “treatment to remission” mindset and practice in our patient care?
What this can look like is a relatively quick stabilization in the hospital followed by a move to longer skill-building treatment in residential or outpatient programs, as indicated by the patient’s symptoms. Our assessment tools track the progress of the patient and help our clinical teams focus on providing tailored therapy, medication, and family support. Our clinical work is then centered around supporting lasting healing by building the strengths needed to thrive.
What is measurement-based care, and how does it support the “treatment to remission” approach?
Measurement-based care (MBC) uses simple assessment scales like the CGI-S (a clinician-rated severity scale), PHQ-9 (for depression), and GAD-7 (for anxiety) to check symptoms at the start of, during, and after treatment. This helps us see how well treatment is working for each patient, and adjust our interventions to help patients reach complete remission.
An MBC approach also helps our clinical teams decide when to move a patient from inpatient hospitalization (high severity, CGI-S score of 5–7) to outpatient programs (lower scores). It makes these complex decisions fair, clear, and based in data, supporting exceptional results.
How can our team help if a patient relapses or needs support at different life stages?
If a patient’s symptoms return, our Admissions team can quickly offer support in the appropriate setting within our Care Pathways, such as one of our Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) or inpatient care, if needed.
We’re also continuing to expand our programs and the ages we support, from kids through adults. As we welcome a broader range of ages in our various levels of care, we will continue to build high-quality programs tailored to meet unique needs.
What are you hoping patients and families will experience with these updates in place?
Now the high-quality, effective treatment that PrairieCare has always provided will be measurable throughout the care journey, and accessible to more patients in need of our life-changing care. Patients who come here will continue to experience the immense passion of our team for helping them feel better and embrace life. Ultimately, these efforts are all about making care accessible and safe, while providing long-term healing.
About Dr. Wall
Christopher Wall, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer at PrairieCare and a board-certified psychiatrist in both Adult Psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Since joining PrairieCare, he has been instrumental in developing programs that expand access to high-quality mental health care for children, adolescents, and adults. Guided by a passion for collaborative, individualized treatment, he continues to lead PrairieCare’s efforts to provide healing for patients and families across Minnesota.
Mental Health Support for All Ages in Minnesota
At PrairieCare, we’re here to support lasting recovery with a full continuum of care that meets people where they are in their mental health journey. Whether anxiety is keeping you from achieving your career goals or your child is experiencing worsening symptoms of depression, our team can help.
With expanded access, shorter wait times, and a treatment-to-remission philosophy, PrairieCare is building a path forward for all Minnesotans to receive care when they need it most. Take the next step today in getting help. Connect with our team at 952-826-8475 and discover how PrairieCare can support you, a loved one, or a patient.
