Use this checklist to revamp your policy
October 1, 2002 less than 1 minute read
Your guidelines for psychiatric patients should address the following questions, says Hartmut Gross, MD, FACEP, associate professor for the department of emergency medicine at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta:
- Do your current triage criteria ensure that psychiatric patients receive appropriate care?
- What mechanisms are in place to deter elopement?
- Is there a lockup room? Do you need one?
- How do you prevent patients from injuring themselves while in the ED?
- Do staff know how to intervene and defuse an angry or violent patient?
- Do you have enough staff to have one potentially function as a sitter while you do work-up on a psychiatric patient?
- What happens if you see the patient leaving? How do you stop him or her?
- What protocols are in place regarding use of restraints? Are you compliant with them?
- Do your staff know how to do a psychiatric evaluation? Is there a template or checkoff list they can use if they don’t do this often?
- Do you know where to send patients? What resources are available in the hospital and in the community?
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