How We Match The Level of Care
The UTHealth Houston Center for Interventional Psychiatry uses a matched-care approach to determine the most appropriate treatment level and intensity for each patient. Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all or strictly stepwise model, care is tailored based on clinical severity, risk, functional impairment, and prior treatment response.
Following a comprehensive evaluation, patients are matched to one of four levels of care:
- Outpatient Care for patients who require specialized consultation, medication optimization, psychotherapy integration, or interventional treatments while maintaining daily functioning.
- Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for patients with moderate to severe symptoms who need structured, frequent treatment but do not require full-day or inpatient care.
- Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) for patients with significant symptom burden or functional impairment who benefit from daily, intensive treatment while remaining medically and psychiatrically stable enough to return home in the evenings.
- Inpatient Psychiatric Care for patients with acute safety concerns, severe suicidality, psychosis, catatonia, or profound functional decline requiring 24-hour monitoring and treatment.
Level-of-care decisions are informed by:
- Symptom severity and trajectory
- Suicide risk and overall safety
- Functional capacity and support systems
- Medical and psychiatric comorbidities
- Urgency of treatment response
- History of response or non-response to prior interventions
Patients may move fluidly between levels of care as clinical needs evolve. Step-down or step-up transitions are planned intentionally to support stabilization, continuity, and recovery.
By matching patients to the appropriate level of care early and adjusting intensity as needed, the Center aims to reduce delays in effective treatment, enhance safety, and optimize clinical outcomes for individuals with severe and treatment-resistant psychiatric illness.