ArticleCommunity mental health journal2026
Secret Shopper Analysis Highlights that Accessing Psychiatric Healthcare in Puerto Rico is a Challenging Endeavor.
Article in Community mental health journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveOver the past 20 years, Puerto Rico has experienced a reduction in medical professionals and an erosion of the healthcare system. In this study, we assess the degree to which psychiatrists in Puerto Rico are answering phone calls and accepting new patients, accepting the public health insurance or cash payments, and the length of time between the call and the appointment offered.
methodsA “secret shopper” analysis was performed, in which a research team attempted to contact 183 psychiatric service providers or organizations listed in the 2023 directory of one of the major private health insurance companies in Puerto Rico.
resultsApproximately 47% of the calls were answered and 46% of those resulted in members of the research team being offered an appointment. In about 40% of the answered calls, the service provider was not accepting new patients, and in approximately 11%, the caller was asked to send more information to be able to secure an appointment. Wait time for appointments ranged from 1 to 2 days to up to nine months. Additional factors, such as healthcare coverage, being able to afford treatment out-of-pocket, and the ability to provide additional required information also complicated the process of securing an appointment with a psychiatrist in Puerto Rico.
conclusionsAccess to psychiatric healthcare in Puerto Rico was found to be a challenging endeavor with a lack of response, providers not being able to accept new patients, and long wait times constituting barriers to these services in Puerto Rico.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41989708What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.