The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (11/4, Smydo) reports that approximately 200 physicians across Pennsylvania voiced concerns about increasing psychiatric caseloads when the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s House of Delegates complained of an inpatient psychiatric bed shortage and requested the state to implement a computerized tracking system to identify where inpatient psychiatric and detoxification beds are available. As some patients wait in emergency departments for days for placement, the American College of Emergency Physicians’ Pennsylvania chapter’s former president Michael Turturro stated, “They’re not getting the same type of treatment they would get as an inpatient.” Area health professionals attribute the shortage to the closure of Mayview State Hospital as well as state budget cuts.
Related Links:
— “Pennsylvania doctors complain of lack of psychiatric beds and seek solutions, “Joe Smydo, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 3, 2013.