Anne Zink, MD, “the immediate past president of the Alaska chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians,” writes in STAT (10/18) “First Opinion” about “psychiatric boarding,” the practice of emergency departments holding patients with mental health issues “because no appropriate mental health care is available.” Dr. Zink outlines different initiatives that aim to address the problem before concluding that “the better able we are to treat patients with mental and behavioral issues, communicate and collaborate effectively, and match patients with the appropriate resources outside of the emergency department, the better off our health system and our patients will be.”
Related Links:
— “Mental health patients, with nowhere else to go, are overwhelming emergency departments, “Anne Zink, STAT, October 18, 2018.