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Tuesday, March 12, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Another view?
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The recent article about alleged patient dumping, “From Las Vegas mental health facility, man sent by bus to Sacramento,” was saddening and shocking. What left me equally disturbed was the quote by Nevada State Health Officer Dr. Tracey Green. According to the story, she said it was possible that a man’s mental status could change considerably between his release from a psychiatric hospital and arrival in a new place. “So many things can happen in between, so it’s hard to draw a conclusion of any fault,” she said.
Given that she might have been misquoted or taken out of context, clearly the man featured in the story, released with medication for three days and instructions to dial 911 if he didn’t know what to do, was not competent to function in a city he didn’t know, with no relatives or friends there.
I expect Gov. Brian Sandoval and Dr. Green to have an audit of the state’s practices and define more humanely what qualifies as competence to relocate to a new location. I expect Dr. Green to not assess blame but to accept the need for best practices.
Facilities here cannot justify purchasing bus tickets to California cities.
Patient dumping sounds like a similar practice that was alleged to have happened with poor black folks from the south during the fifties and sixties.It was said that poor black folks from the south were given one way tickets to northern states and were told to apply for welfare at local govt. offices.Most were eligable to recieve welfare benefits right away.
Both practices are a disgrace to our system of govt, if they were done in the fashion that is being suggested.
my wife and I got caught up in the Desai malpractice case. We both had colonoscopies at one of his clinics when we moved here years ago. In the course of the litigation we found out that the state of Nevada has six, count them six, medical investigators that are supposed to keep track of all of Nevada's medical activities. A facility gets visited once about every two years in Nevada.
This state is so understaffed they don't have anyone to audit anything.
Ginny,
"Nevada State Health Officer Dr.Tracey Green.According to the story,she said it was possible that a man's mental status could change considerably between his release from a psychiatric hospital and arrival in a new place.So many things can happen in between so it's hard to draw a conclusion of any fault".
Knowing all this, would Dr.Tracey not have given that a second thought about possibly reconsidering on not releasing such a person to a unfamiliar city with no friends or relatives?