{"id":1961,"date":"2019-04-02T10:44:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T10:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2019-04-02T10:44:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T10:44:46","slug":"inpatient-program-cuts-at-sam-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/2019\/04\/02\/inpatient-program-cuts-at-sam-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Inpatient Program Cuts at Sam Health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Samaritan\n Health Services recently announced that it has reduced the number of \nbeds and staff in its mental health inpatient unit in Corvallis, citing \nthat many of the beds are going unused. Hospital officials claim that \ntheir new intensive outpatient program, called partial hospitalization, \nwill better serve the mental health needs of the region, but some \nprofessionals in the mental health community are skeptical of this \ndecision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent census conducted\n by Sam Health indicated that the ward averages 11.7 patients despite \nthe unit being currently outfitted for 16 patients, and 20 patients for \nmost of 2018. The new outpatient program will allow patients to \nparticipate in therapy and additional prescribed activities during the \nday, before returning to their homes at night. Hospital officials have \nstated that such a program might further reduce the need for inpatient \ncare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mental health \nprofessional for decades, local therapist Jana Svoboda suggests that the\n under-utilization of Sam Health\u2019s inpatient ward is a much more nuanced\n issue than one of a simple lack of demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

County as Inpatient Gatekeeper<\/strong>
\nIn Oregon, when a person is facing an active mental health crisis and \nrequires inpatient treatment, they must first go to the ER to be \nprocessed and evaluated by hospital staff. After that, they need to wait\n for a mental health evaluator from the county to authorize them for \ninpatient care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey get there, they\u2019re \nput in a gown, with their belongings placed behind a locked door. They \nare sitting on a table, maybe get their blood taken to check for \nsubstances, meet briefly with the emergency room doctor and wait for the\n county to show up,\u201d explained Svoboda.  The\n cost for such visits can be significant and the wait lengthy. Svoboda \nhas had patients wait several hours only to be sent home. She explained \nthat when the evaluator arrives, they question the patient, asking if \nthey can keep themselves safe for the time being, then asking them if \nthey want to go home. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been sitting naked in a cold room for \nseven hours, and are asked if you\u2019d like to go home, you usually want to\n go home,\u201d said Svoboda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svoboda said that she has\n put patients on months-long waiting lists for inpatient care, which \ngenerally defeats the purpose of a type of care that is meant to treat \npersons facing immediate mental health crises. She noted that many \ntherapists in town report the same experience. \u201cNo therapist is even \ngoing to try to hospitalize a patient they aren\u2019t really worried about. \nWe know how hard it is to find a bed and how expensive and impacting \nhospitalization can be. But when someone is decompensating or suicidal, a\n stay can save their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A single night\u2019s stay in \nthe Sam Health psychiatric ward costs $1571, according to the hospital\u2019s\n standard pricing guide. This number is for room and board, and does not\n include other associated costs, like medications, evaluations, and \ntherapy. An extended stay in the ward can easily garner an uninsured \npatient a bill of tens of thousands of dollars. In Oregon, 10.3 percent \nof people with reported mental illnesses are not insured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partial Hospitalization<\/strong>
\nSamaritan Health\u2019s new partial hospitalization program (PHP) is expected\n to begin in Fall of 2019, and both Benton County Health and hospital \nofficials assert that the program will be effective in addressing the \nmental health needs of the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is an effective and\n less costly option than inpatient hospitalization,\u201d said Benton County \nHealth Administrator Mitch Anderson. \u201cThe structured program provides \njust what many patients need to help them transition back into \ncommunity-based services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to peer \nreviewed studies, PHPs aren\u2019t meant to replace inpatient care in every \ncase, but can be effective in supplementing it. According to a 2010 \npaper in Psychiatry by Dr. Imran Khawaja and Dr. Joseph Westermeyer \ntitled \u201cProviding Crisis-oriented and Recovery-based Treatment in \nPartial Hospitalization Programs,\u201d PHP\u2019s can alleviate some need for \ninpatient services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough PHPs can be \nused in place of an inpatient admission in some cases, they are not a \nsubstitute for inpatient care for patients who are actively suicidal or \nhomicidal, because the patients return home at night. Suicidal and \nhomicidal patients require in-patient care, but PHPs can be used as an \nintermediate step to shorten an inpatient admission,\u201d according to the \nreport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Svoboda contends that \ninpatient care may also be crucial for some patients that don\u2019t \nnecessarily pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes the person may\n not be actively suicidal, but they are decompensating rapidly, and that\n time away from their life to stop, reset, and focus on getting their \nhealth back together is really critical, and it can prevent massive \ndisruptions later in life,\u201d explains Svoboda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Treatment Advocacy \nCenter, a national non-profit organization that focuses on improving \nmental health care, released a report in 2016 that asserts that 50 \ninpatient beds per 100,000 people are needed to adequately serve the \nmental health needs of that population. In 2016, Oregon had 16.2 beds \nper 100,000 people on average, a 47 bed decrease from six years earlier \nin 2010. In Oregon, 24.9 percent of people with mental illnesses report \nan unmet need in treatment, the third highest percentage in the country.\n The most stunning Oregon mental health statistic might be the findings \nof a 2017 study by Mental Health America, which shows Oregon as the \nstate with the highest rate of mental illness in the country.\nPartial hospitalization programs have been implemented in many \nparts of the country with some success. This lower cost approach to \nmental health care may seem like an inevitable evolution, given the high\n cost of inpatient care in our ever-more costly for-profit healthcare \nsystem (it\u2019s important to note that Sam Health is non-profit). The \ninformation we have paints a dire portrait of the state of mental health\n in Oregon, and some in the field point to an epidemic in the region \nthat must be adequately addressed.\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jay Sharpe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samaritan Health Services recently announced that it has reduced the number of beds and staff in its mental health inpatient unit in Corvallis, citing that many of the beds are going unused. Hospital officials claim that their new intensive outpatient program, called partial hospitalization, will better serve the mental health needs of the region, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,62],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1963,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/1963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schultzwebdesign.se\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}