What do you do with psych patients?

[Kiwiology]

These pts are usually pretty easy to care for, standard set of labs, call social work and wait for them to find a bed.

It will also give us a chance to talk and you can refill my Rx for valiumz

Seriously, mental health is a very serious problem that affects lots of people and costs society dearly both in monetary and also in social cost and should not be joked about. Except by me, because I am slightly kookoo bananas in the brainbox and one can make fun of one's own kind. "Likely to be well" my ass, thanks a lot Kessler psychological distress scale!

[ERDoc]

I don't know Kiwi. I think we might need to hit you with some Geodon.

[Arctickat]

Ugh. Speaking of which, took a patient into local ER last night and was doing paperwork when I heard the nurses lamenting over another patient they had in the building. Turns out this 30 something year old male with a history of substance and chemical abuse came to the hospital because he was having suicidal and violent thoughts. He didn't like where he was headed so came for help. The Doc tried to get him into 4 different facilities who all refused to take him. The furthest one was a 2.5 hour drive. The nurses were worried for this fellow because he was going to fall through the cracks and they didn't know what to do, so I asked them if they had tried the provincial psych hospital, 400kms away. Their expressions gave it away that they hadn't, so they called it up...sure enough, 9 hours later I was back in bed.

Sigh.

[island emt]

Thats what you get from putting your brain in gear.

But thats a pretty good revenue producer 800 km round trip

[Arctickat]

Meh, with the overtime I paid out, I actually lost money on it. The alternative was to put him into a police cell for the night and send him out to one of the closer centres in the morning...during regular hours which don't get overtime paid. It's all about putting the patient before the money though.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Arctickat

[MariB]

You did the right thing

[joeylee096]

The only thing we do here in Indiana is transport them via bus (due to the flight personel not wanting to be hurt / deal with them) to Fort Wayne. The family has the choice of Lutheran, Duke, or Parkview. If no NOK if found, we automatically tp them to Parkview as with our contract. Other than that, sedatives and strap them onto a board.

[island emt]

Why are you sedating them and strapping them to a backboard? Do they have a spinal injury?

Seems to be a blanket protocol to get sued to me.

[Arctickat]

The only thing we do here in Indiana is transport them via bus

Do they even have room to secure a spineboard in a bus? Who buys his ticket? Is it round trip or one way?

[ERDoc]

Do they even have room to secure a spineboard in a bus? Who buys his ticket? Is it round trip or one way?

Don't start picking on people who call it a bus. People with pericarditis don't care if you call it a bus.