Emergency rooms get some relief

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 10:52 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A money committee cleared about $15 million for new mental health services Monday morning, continuing the Legislature's push to give relief to Southern Nevada's crowded emergency rooms.

People in Southern Nevada have waited hours to get into emergency rooms, largely because more than 100 beds throughout the Las Vegas Valley are typically in use by mental health patients who have nowhere else to go.

Assembly Bill 175, passed Monday by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, aims to plug holes in the system to prevent that hold-up. It allocates money for 90 new beds in long-term housing, 50 new crisis beds, mental health courts in Clark, Washoe and Carson counties, and triage centers that would shuttle mental health patients away from emergency rooms and to other treatment.

The idea is to treat patients, move them out of emergency room beds, and then follow their progress so they don't end up in the hospital again.

The bill will give relief to the system while Clark County waits for the opening of a 190-bed mental health hospital in mid-2006, said Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.

"It's a complex solution to a complex problem," she said.

The money comes after legislators approved almost a 50 percent increase in the mental health budget.

Gov. Kenny Guinn had already allotted money for 90 new residential beds, said Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of mental health services. The new money will make a big difference in the cycle that mental health patients often endure, he said. People often end up in hospital beds when they have nowhere else to go, he said.

"Where do they go? Under bridges and places like that," he said.

Brandenburg is still waiting for details on a request for bids that the state put out on another 50-bed crisis unit. Westcare put in the lowest bid, though Brandenburg said he has no finalized details on how much it would cost.

Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, who has worked as an emergency room doctor, requested the information, saying the center would help alleviate problems in Southern Nevada emergency rooms. Heck supports Senate Bill 405, which is still before the Senate Finance Committee and would allocate $19.8 million toward mental health services, including money for public and private mental health crisis placements and a mental health court.

The bill also includes money to increase the reimbursement from Medicare that hospitals would get for mental health patients, though Heck said that might prove too costly. Private hospitals now shy away from providing mental health beds, largely because they can make much more money from surgeries or other services.

Even with an increase, the profits still wouldn't compare, Heck said.

"There's not a hospital down there that's going to open up mental health beds," he said. Heck said the bill would "without a doubt" alleviate waits in Southern Nevada emergency rooms.

"There is support for increased mental health services in Southern Nevada," Heck said. "This would be an excellent use of one-shot money from the surplus."