State is preparing contract to divert mental patients from emergency rooms

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Anywhere from 52 to 77 mentally ill patients have been clogging emergency rooms in Las Vegas hospitals each day this month, waiting to be admitted to the state mental hospital.

And the time a patient spends in the emergency room has averaged 83 hours before the state can accept them to its overcrowded facilities.

Carlos Brandenburg, director of the state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, said Monday a contract is being prepared to divert the patients from hospital emergency rooms to the WestCare triage center for temporary housing.

The Legislature allocated $7 million for temporary care while the new mental health hospital is constructed in Las Vegas. Brandenburg said construction of the Neal-Rawson hospital at Oakey and Jones boulevards is ahead of schedule and should be completed in April.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly called this contract "an important intermediate step" to relieve the hospitals. He said last month there were more than 100 mentally ill patients in the emergency rooms waiting for the state to accept them. He said patients are not getting treatment and emergency rooms are not the appropriate place for them.

Reilly said both Gov. Kenny Guinn and Mike Willden, the director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, have been "so supportive" in relieving the problem.

Brandenburg said WestCare was chosen over Montevista Hospital, a psychiatric hospital that also submitted a bid. He said a price per bed has not been set, but he expects to use 35 to 45 beds at WestCare until the new hospital opens next year.

Brandenburg hopes for a special meeting of the state Board of Examiners to approve the contract so WestCare can start on Sept. 1 in accepting patients.

Once the patients arrive at WestCare, state social workers will assess the severity of their illnesses. Some may be released to the community with treatment plans and required follow-up visits. Others may be sent to the present mental health facilities for longer care.

"We want to keep them out of the hospital and in the community," Brandenburg said.

Reilly, who in July 2004 declared that the mentally ill patients flooding emergency rooms were causing a county emergency, said another important part of solving the crisis is getting private hospitals to accept more mentally ill. He said the state must raise its Medicaid rates to reimburse.

Some hospitals have closed their psychiatric units, adding to the problem, Reilly and others said.