Funds for psych patients to run out

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, July 14, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

The state emergency funds paying for the care of psychiatric patients moved out of local emergency rooms in recent days is expected to run out Thursday, and state officials said Tuesday they still weren't sure where additional money will come from.

Without additional money, the Las Vegas nonprofit WestCare Community Triage Center could stop taking new mentally ill patients, which could again result in Clark County emergency rooms beds being filled by psychiatric patients.

However, WestCare President Richard Steinberg said that after meeting with state officials Tuesday afternoon he was left with the impression "they will do everything they can" to find additional money to keep WestCare's emergency beds open.

WestCare opened 36 new beds over the weekend after area hospitals said that one-third of the emergency room beds in Clark County were taken by psychiatric patients, leaving the area without enough empty emergency room beds to deal with a large influx of patients.

The county and state governments responded to the hospitals' cries with a declaration of a state of emergency Friday, which made $100,000 available to deal with the crisis.

But Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of the state's Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services, and Steinberg said the $100,000 will probably only last until Thursday.

"We are looking for ways to bridge that gap," Brandenburg said. "But no decision has been made on where the additional funding will come from."

Brandenburg has said that while the governor could find some money in the existing budget, a long-term funding solution would have to be approved by the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee, which is not scheduled to meet until Sept. 15.

Also Tuesday, state Department of Human Resources Director Mike Willden was in Las Vegas to review the possibility of opening part of the state's Desert Regional Center in Las Vegas to house some of the overflow psychiatric patients. Brandenburg said he didn't know how long it could be before that facility would be ready to house psychiatric patients. Steinberg has estimated it would take 30 days to prepare the building for new patients.

The problem of mentally ill patients crowding emergency rooms was caused in part by the fact that people picked up by the authorities who are considered a danger to themselves or others are first taken to hospital emergency rooms to be checked for physical problems. Those patients are only allowed to leave after they are checked out by a doctor who gives them a medical clearance.

After receiving a medical clearance, the patient could be discharged to another care facility or in some cases allowed to go home. But sometimes there is no place to move the patients who still need care. The state's mental health hospital in Las Vegas has 77 beds and is frequently full.

This problem that was addressed partially by the opening of the temporary beds at WestCare this weekend.

Officials say the long-term solution will come with the opening of a new state mental health hospital, but that is years away.