Modern Healthcare (11/14, Kacik, Hudson, Subscription Publication) reports, “Medical associations, patient advocates, public health organizations and health systems are asking for federal and state help to address the escalating number of mental health patients seeking care at hospital emergency departments” (EDs). Currently, “patients are being held in” EDs “for as long as months as they await psychiatric beds.” As a result, “the system is cracking in a demonstration of the mental healthcare safety net’s systemic failings, the” American Psychiatric Association “and 30 other industry groups wrote in a letter” (PDF) “sent to the White House on” Nov. 7.
Related Links:
— “Mental health epidemic creates emergency department backlog “Alex Kacik, Modern Healthcare, November 14, 2022