Emergency Room A program in Wake County, N.C., trains paramedics to perform mental health exams on
patients in the field.
RALEIGH, N.C. — As darkness fell on a
Friday evening over downtown Raleigh, N.C., Michael Lyons, a paramedic supervisor for Wake County Emergency Medical Services, slowly approached the tall, lanky man who was swaying back and forth in a gentle rhythm.
In answer to Mr. Lyons's questions, the man, wearing a red shirt that dwarfed his thin frame, said he was bipolar, schizophrenic and homeless. He was looking for help because he did not think his prescribed medication was working.
In the past, paramedics would have taken the man to the closest hospital emergency room — most likely the nearby WakeMed Health and Hospitals, one of the largest centers in the region. But instead, under a
pilot program, paramedics ushered him through the doors of Holly Hill Hospital, a commercial psychiatric facility.
"He doesn't have a medical complaint, he's just a mental health patient living on the street who is looking for some help,"said Mr. Lyons, pulling his van back into traffic. "The good news is that he's not going to an E.R. That's saving the hospital
money and getting the patient to the most appropriate place for him," he added.
The experiment in Raleigh is being closely watched by other cities desperate to find a way to help mentally ill patients without admitting them to emergency rooms,
where the cost of treatment is high — and unnecessary.
While there is evidence that other types of health care costs might be declining slightly, the cost of emergency room care for the mentally ill shows no sign of ebbing.
Nationally, more than 6.4 million visits to emergency rooms in 2010, or about 5 percent of total visits, involved patients whose primary diagnosis was a mental health condition or substance abuse. That
is up 28 percent from just four years
earlier, according to the latest figures
available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Md.
By one federal estimate, spending by
general hospitals to care for these patients is expected to nearly double to $38.5 billion in 2014, from $20.3 billion in 2003.
The problem has been building for
decades as mental health systems have been largely decentralized, pushing oversight and responsibility for psychiatric care into overwhelmed communities and, often, to hospitals, like WakeMed.
In North Carolina, the problem is
becoming particularly acute. A recent
study said that the number of mental
patients entering emergency rooms in the state was double the nation's average in 2010.
From BEN Latest News: www.benlatestnews.blogspot.com
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