NPR /Colorado Public Radio (6/1, Whitney) reports, “A study published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine by Anthony Weiss with Partners Healthcare in Massachusetts found psychiatric patients in hospital emergency departments waited an average of 11.5 hours before being treated or released.” Weiss said, “The reimbursement for mental health care” in the US “is among the lowest across the different disease states,” which means “it’s not, in some cases, economically viable to support” psychiatric wards. This, in turn, can lead to lead to patients with psychiatric issues spending long amounts of time in emergency departments.
Related Links:
— “As Psychiatric Wards Close, Patients Languish In Emergency Rooms,”Eric Whitney, NPR Colorado Public Radio, May 31, 2012.