August has been a difficult month for Las Vegas-area emergency departments, with three hospitals forced to turn away incoming patients because of capacity issues due to an influx of mental health patients waiting in the ED to be admitted to inpatient beds, according to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The hospitals affected include Las Vegas-based University Medical Center and two Dignity Health St. Rose Dominican Hospital Campuses — Lima and Siena, both in Henderson, Nev. The mental health patients in question were waiting for beds at the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, according to the report.
In the last 30 days, St. Rose Lima's ED has closed three times for a total of 54 hours, and St. Rose Siena's ED has closed 10 times for a total of nearly 74 hours. The decision to close is typically made when admitting more patients will affect patient safety, according to the report.
UMC's Joint Commission rating was almost affected by the incident, according to Dale Carrison, MD, chief of staff and head of emergency services at UMC, in the report, with a presentation from hospital officials explaining the situation keeping the accreditation agency satisfied.
Nevada took action to relieve a similar situation in June of this year, allocating funding to improve the state's mental health system to the tune of $3.5 million, which was covered with tobacco settlement money, according got the report.
While several solutions, including opening psychiatric units at other hospitals, constructing a triage center and establishing regionalized mental healthcare have been discussed, a true solution has yet to be implemented, according to the report.
More articles on capacity management:
HHS to host webinar on healthcare finance after disasters
Billings Clinic plans $1.4M inpatient expansion
What percent of acute-care beds are occupied by non-acute-care patients