testimony<\/a>\u00a0from providers, advocates, and impacted families about dangerous gaps in emergency and inpatient psychiatric services. The OAG reviewed\u00a0data\u00a0regarding\u00a0thousands of emergency department visits involving behavioral health conditions,\u00a0as well as\u00a0patient records, hospital policies, incident reporting systems, and psychiatric bed capacity data\u00a0to assess compliance with federal and state law.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe investigation uncovered repeated breakdowns in emergency department care, including consistent failures to properly screen and stabilize patients with behavioral health conditions, as well as a lack of\u00a0effective screening and\u00a0safety measures to prevent\u00a0impaired\u00a0patients from leaving the hospital\u00a0prior to discharge\u00a0(known as elopement). The OAG also found that NYP\u00a0failed to\u00a0adequately\u00a0monitor\u00a0patients placed under observation, including those requiring one-on-one supervision, and did not consistently gather critical information from outside sources, such as family members or community providers. Patients were\u00a0routinely\u00a0discharged without the care, stability, or follow-up support they needed, and NYP\u2019s records did not always include complete or\u00a0accurate\u00a0documentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In multiple cases, patients experiencing serious psychiatric symptoms \u2014 including suicidal ideation, psychosis, and violent behavior \u2014 left the hospital before\u00a0being properly discharged or transferred\u00a0due to inadequate supervision and safety protocols, putting both\u00a0patients and the public at potential risk. For example:\u00a0<\/p>\n
A patient with a history of suicide attempts and homicidal ideation arrived at the hospital reporting hallucinations. After telling staff he \u201ccouldn\u2019t control when he wanted to hurt people,\u201d he was determined to need inpatient psychiatric admission and remained in the emergency department for more than two days awaiting a bed. Despite being ordered to receive close supervision, he eloped from the hospital before he could be transferred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A teenage patient initially cleared for discharge pending a psychiatric evaluation was later found to need inpatient admission after providers reached his mother and determined he was at high risk for suicide or violence. Because staff had failed to implement safety precautions, the patient eloped from the hospital within minutes without receiving further care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A young man was brought to the hospital by EMS and police after attacking a bystander. Staff failed to review the EMS report documenting the incident and did not fully assess the risk he posed. The patient ran from the emergency department, chased by staff and security, but the hospital did not notify law enforcement until the following day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The OAG also\u00a0determined\u00a0that NYP\u00a0failed to\u00a0bring\u00a0all of\u00a0its licensed inpatient psychiatric beds back online after the COVID-19 pandemic, despite clear legal requirements and growing demand for care.\u00a0As of May 2023, more than 100 psychiatric beds remained out of operation across the NYP system. State regulators had directed hospitals to restore this capacity as the pandemic subsided, but NYP did not fully comply, contributing to a shortage of inpatient care during a period of heightened mental health need.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result of OAG\u2019s investigation, Attorney General James is requiring sweeping reforms across the NYP hospital system, including:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Major Emergency Department Reforms: NYP must strengthen its screening policies to identify risks such as suicide, violence, and substance use, with required follow-up assessments and ongoing reassessment for higher-risk patients. NYP must also strengthen patient safety and monitoring, including establishing mandatory observation protocols, maintaining monitoring logs, and documenting clinical decisions.<\/p>\n
Elopement Prevention Measures: NYP must strengthen its elopement screening policies and precautions to prevent vulnerable patients from leaving care unsupervised. If a high-need patient goes missing, staff must immediately escalate the situation, notify leadership, and fully document and review each incident.<\/p>\n
Health Record Upgrades: NYP must improve its electronic health record (EHR) system to ensure providers have real-time access to complete patient information and can follow care protocols.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Care Coordination Improvements: NYP staff must review prior records, consult relevant databases, and make efforts to contact a patient\u2019s family members, providers, or other sources when available, documenting all outreach. When appropriate, NYP must coordinate with outpatient providers and care teams before making treatment or discharge decisions.<\/p>\n
Stronger Discharge and Admission Planning: NYP must ensure patients with complex needs leave the hospital with appropriate follow-up care, including scheduled appointments and connections to ongoing services. NYP must also document all efforts to locate available beds for patients awaiting admission.<\/p>\n
Ongoing Oversight and Accountability: NYP will be subject to continued monitoring, reporting, and quality assurance reviews, including tracking and reviewing every incident of patient elopement to ensure compliance with OAG\u2019s reforms.<\/p>\n
Attorney General James has secured $500,000 from NYP for its misconduct and will impose a $10,000 penalty per violation for any future violations of the settlement terms. NYP\u00a0must also\u00a0comply with\u00a0all laws governing psychiatric bed capacity and ensure\u00a0appropriate planning\u00a0and transparency\u00a0regarding\u00a0inpatient services going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s settlement announced by New York Attorney General James is an important reminder of the ongoing need for strong oversight and enforcement to ensure compliance and accountability with New York\u2019s laws and regulations. This is essential to guarantee that New Yorkers with mental health conditions can access care\u2014especially in emergencies, when proper screening, evaluation, and treatment are crucial,\u201d\u00a0said Glenn Liebman, CEO of Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS). \u201cAs we continue to address a mental health crisis, it is vital for New York state to require community hospitals to restore all inpatient capacity to pre-COVID levels and to implement policies and procedures that assure not only adequate care and safety in emergency rooms and inpatient units, but also in discharge planning. Let this agreement strengthen the collective commitment and resolve of regulators, providers, and stakeholders to meet the needs of New Yorkers with the most complex mental health conditions and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Michael Reisman and Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant to the First Deputy Gina Bull, under the supervision of Health Care Bureau Chief Darsana Srinivasan. The Health Care Bureau is part of the Division for Social Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Meghan Faux and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAG Investigation Revealed Systemic Failures in Emergency Care, Patient Safety, and Psychiatric Bed Capacity\u00a0 New York Attorney General…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-195773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-the-bronx","13":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","14":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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