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Psych ER purchases cots to handle overflow

Quality Improvement Monitor, August 11, 2005

Overcrowding at one central New York state psychiatric emergency room forced the facility to purchase cots from a local sporting goods store earlier this summer.

The Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, NY, saw daily volume rise as high as 37 patients in July, according to <i>The Post-Standard</i> of Syracuse. The program can handle 13-15 patients normally.

The program purchased cots from a local Dick's Sporting Goods store to handle the overflow, the newspaper reported.

The program evaluates patients and then treats them or refers them to other programs in the region, the newspaper said. Adult patients who need to be hospitalized are admitted at St. Joseph's, Community General Hospital, University Hospital, or Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse if psychiatric beds are available.

Psychiatric beds at those organizations have been scarce lately, the paper reported, forcing the program to look for beds in Ithaca, Oswego, and Rome, nearly an hour's drive from Syracuse. 

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