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jeff6806 t1_jaaqwfi wrote

To try to clarify this rant,

This is about preventing emergency departments in any hospital in NH from holding patients for an extended time (not sure what timeframe this is, guessing >24 hrs?) in the ED for psych issues which in this case primarily would relate to issues of suicide risk. Ideally such patients would transfer to an inpatient psych unit for appropriate treatment that they can’t receive in an emergency department setting. Unfortunately there are not enough inpatient psych units or beds in those units for the need. Patients in the ED where a physician is concerned about suicide risk may be held in the ED and not allowed to leave because the physician is responsible if they leave the ED and immediately harm themselves or someone else.

As someone in medicine, I don’t think there is an easy answer to this problem and this law may help or may make things worse but if the president of the NH Hospital Association is supporting it, I’d be wary of it. Hospital associations around the country are worried about maximizing profits, not much else.

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-cochise t1_jab3k8o wrote

Hear hear, nothing more to be said about it really. It’s a mandate without a mechanism.

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BelichicksBurner OP t1_jaatbbf wrote

Yeah I'm not gonna explain the entire article to them that's why I posted it, but good on you. As I understand it, they can't be held at all. Once they're medically cleared for hospitalization, they go to the hospital. And wheb there are no beds? Well right now it would seem starting in April they'll just be going home to wait. Of course the president of the NH Hospital association is supporting it. If ever you needed confirmation this was gonna be a cluster fuck, look no further than that endorsement. This "law" isn't going to help anyone because if you know anything about how the state handles mental health you know they have no answers...becuase they've never had answers. Their answer is going to be what it always has been: them looking at the CMHCs and asking "...so what's the answer?" Sadly, given the current state of the local CMHCs I highly doubt they have another rabbit to pull out of their hat this time.

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