Across Virginia there’s been an uptick in psychiatric admissions to hospitals, to the point where beds are filling up. Thursdaya group from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association rolled out some ideas on what can be done.
Doctor Michael McDermott runs Mary Washington Healthcare in Fredericksburg, where he says beds in the psych unit are consistently full.
“We probably transfer patients out of the Fredericksburg region to other hospitals and health systems probably every single day,” said McDermott.
And while there is an effort to just create more space in hospitals across the state, a group of healthcare professionals says there has to be a focus on more creative solutions as well.
“Opening more beds is like building more highways and expecting there to be less traffic. It’s not going to happen. You’re still going to have traffic. You need to build public transportation,” explains Lisa Castro, who runs behavioral health services for a hospital in Petersburg.
Castro is part of a collaborative effort to roll out some of those ideas.
“(To) surround these patients. In their community. In their families. In their schools,” she says.
The group will work to expand the use of telemedicine in psychiatry, and create more opportunities for outpatient treatment. They also will focus efforts on recruiting more nurses and psychiatrists.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
