Getting help faster
A database to help psychiatric patients in crisis
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, RMonongahela, and Rep. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, are renewing their push to create an electronic database that would help doctors more quickly find inpatient beds for psychiatric patients in crisis. This legislation would meet a need that cuts across political, socioeconomic and geographic lines. All members of the Legislature and Gov. Tom Wolf should support it.
Ms. Bartolotta’s bill, which passed the Health and Human Services Committee unanimously Tuesday, would require the Health Department to establish the online database. Participation of hospitals would be voluntary. Those electing to participate would input information, at least once every eight hours, about the number and types of inpatient psychiatric beds they have available.
Not all hospitals have inpatient psychiatric units. Those that do differ in the types of patients and insurances they accept. Some units take only juveniles and others only geriatric patients. A few are equipped to treat patients with mental health and substance abuse disorders. Some may be equipped to handle patients with violent tendencies while others are not. Some may have openings for male patients, but not women.
Without a database, doctors and other health professionals have no easy way to find an inpatient bed when a person in crisis shows up in the emergency department. Some patients wait hours, or even a day or longer, in the emergency department while the medical staff calls around looking for an opening. This is good neither for the patients, who need the best psychiatric care as quickly as possible, nor for the emergency departments, which are not designed to serve as way stations.
More inpatient beds probably are needed to address demand across geographic areas and illness types. However, the state annually collects statistics on bed usage, and the data show that some capacity is going unused over the course of the year. In Allegheny County, for, example occupancy rates ranged from about 56 percent to 92 percent last year. An electronic database can help emergency departments pinpoint and leverage that capacity on a daily basis.
Mr. Miller and Ms. Bartolotta introduced legislation for the database during the past session but weren’t able to bring it to the finish line. Now, they’re trying again. Credit them with seeing a problem and persevering in addressing it. While Ms. Bartolotta’s bill now moves onto the floor calendar, where it deserves a full Senate vote as quickly as possible, Mr. Miller has announced plans to sponsor companion legislation in the House.
Participation by hospitals with inpatient psychiatric units should be mandatory, not voluntary, and a real-time database would be preferable to one updated every eight hours. However, hospitals may balk at forced participation and real-time reporting until they know how much work is involved. For now, the legislation advanced by Ms. Bartolotta is a commendable step forward.