Behavioral health could be an example of an epidemiological study that would highlight a local problem in many places in the country. As everyone knows, the need for psychiatric care has increased dramatically over the last 15 years. Data collection should include a number of factors. These could be: psychiatric hold patients in the acute care setting over 3 consecutive 5-year periods, the number of patients transferred to a skilled psychiatric facility, the number of patients released for outpatient therapy, the number of patients compliant and non-compliant with follow up care, the number of days patients were held in acute care holding beds for placement in appropriate psychiatric care facilities, number of readmissions within 90 days, differentiating between suicidal/homicidal, psychotic, drug related, and other admitting diagnosis. With this data one might show a relationship between the volume of unmet needs for a vulnerable population, a delay in care, and where there may be areas of improvement to mitigate the need for inpatient care.