Mentally ill continue to flood emergency rooms, panel says

David Kihara

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

A fundamental breakdown in services for the mentally ill is continuing to plague the county hospital's emergency services, leading many emergency rooms to continue to be filled to capacity with mentally ill patients at a cost to others, members of the county health district's Medical Advisory Committee said on Wednesday.

The lack of services for the mentally ill has existed for at least two years. Gov. Kenny Guinn has promised to increase mental health spending by $100 million and this week the state broke ground on a $32 million psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas.

While Guinn's proposed budget still needs approval from the state, the delivery of that money "can't begin fast enough," said Rory Chetelat, emergency medical services manager for Clark County Health District.

Chetelat and other members of the board described a dire situation facing the area's emergency rooms, which currently have no room to treat incoming patients because the beds are taken by the mentally ill.

"There is not enough capacity for in-patient care and not enough out-patient services for the mentally ill," Chetelat said, who estimated that between 70 and 100 mentally ill use emergency room beds each day.

Dr. Kevin Slaughter, director of emergency services at Spring Valley Hospital, agreed with Chetelat that the number of mentally ill patients in emergency rooms made it increasingly difficult to provide services for other individuals seeking treatment.

He described a revolving-door approach to dealing with the mentally ill, in which the patient is in an emergency room bed for 5 to 10 days before they are taken by ambulance to one of the state's mental hospitals. Once there, they are often released "within hours," he said.

In less than a day, the mentally ill patient is often picked up and taken once again to an emergency room, where they are kept for another 5 to 10 days, he said.

Natalie Seber, director of the Emergency Department at Mountain View Hospital, said Mountain View has also beet hit by the number of mentally ill accessing the facility's beds.

She said that even though Guinn has included the $100 million increase in funds for mental health services, she didn't think the money would go to services that would help alleviate the problem, such as funding a psychiatric staff member in emergency rooms.

Chetelat agreed with Seber, saying that all emergency rooms "need a psychiatrist."