Depressing thoughts

The US and Canada differ on many aspects of health care delivery, but one area in which they have a common approach is inadequate care for mental health.  I was reminded of this when I met with a colleague who works at the British Columbia Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.  She related several stories about slow and inappropriate treatment of patients--both in crisis and in chronic states--in the provincial health system.Meanwhile, Modern Healthcare reported that south of the border a court ruled that, "hospitals in Washington state will be prohibited from boarding psychiatric patients in emergency departments while they wait for inpatient beds to open up."This creates a terrible Catch-22:“While we respect the state court's decision, federal law still prevents hospital emergency departments from discharging unstable patients, for example, suicidal or homicidal patients, back into environments where they could cause harm to themselves or to others,” Dr. Alex Rosenau, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in a statement. “This ruling does not provide guidance for hospitals and physicians regarding resolution of the conflicts among federal law, this state ruling, and the medical liability risk of discharging patients based on a time limit rather than based on reaching a stable condition.” These debates often focus on funding, but the human costs are high.  Marijke takes the recent death of Robin William...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs