CONCORD, NH — New Hampshire hospitals and state health officials said Wednesday they will work together to tackle the state’s longstanding problem of keeping psychiatric patients in emergency rooms. hospital, a move that ended years of litigation.
A federal judge declared the practice unconstitutional in February, then in May ordered the state for a year to develop a system whereby people would be detained no more than six hours in advance. when being transferred to another facility for treatment.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would waive the right to appeal the order, while hospitals agreed to drop similar lawsuits in state and federal courts.
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Steve Ahnen, president of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, said hospitals and the state have shown they can work together during the coronavirus pandemic and he looks forward to working together further.
“This case has always been about ensuring that patients with an acute mental crisis can get the care they need by being immediately transferred to a specially designed healthcare facility,” he said. that purpose.
New Hampshire has long struggled with a mental health system that advocates say is overwhelmed at every stage, from initiation of treatment to reintegration into the community. The inpatient emergency room, with people in crisis waiting days or weeks for treatment due to a lack of inpatient beds, has become a hotbed and focal point of numerous lawsuits.
Judge Landya McCafferty’s rulings in February and May came after a lawsuit filed in 2018 by patients who allege they were inadvertently kept in the emergency room without a chance to react. for detention. She agrees with a group of hospitals participating in the lawsuit, saying the state is violating the rights of hospitals by seizing their assets.
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As of Tuesday, there were 45 adults and four children inpatients in New Hampshire emergency departments waiting for an inpatient psychiatric hospital bed, according to the New Hampshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
State health commissioner Lori Weaver said she was committed to eliminating those waiting lists and called on all stakeholders to act with “urgency, solidarity and compassion”.
“We will achieve this milestone by working with our partners across the health care system to increase access to mental health services for all residents.” she said in a statement.
