Just another room taken – leading to further backup in an already clogged system:
The woman told the nurse she had a history of mental instability and was off her medication. She wanted to check herself into a mental health hospital – a request that would take hours to fulfill.The closest mental health inpatient facility is two hours away. But the availability of a bed and an officer to transport her is often a wait that no one can estimate. They would have to keep her in one of 16 patient rooms in the emergency department with a nurse checking on her every 10 to 15 minutes until arrangements could be made. As a result, the emergency staff had one less room to use for patients who came in with symptoms of a stroke, heart attack or any other health problem in need of emergent treatment.
Related posts:
- Dumping mental health patients
- Personal liberty vs mental health detention
- Is EMTALA a money-maker for ER’s?
- Mental health in the Asian American community
- Health services to illegal immigrants
- Mental health and racism
- Cardiac cath causes mental illness?
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 1 comment }
If a patient comes in on a Friday to the ER in need of psych placement, they stay till Monday Morning. The ER is quite a mess on Monday morning signout, sometimes there is like 15 psych patients awaiting placement.
Comments on this entry are closed.