Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:480-482
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
Assessing the acute inpatient psychiatric needs of the state hospital patient
PG Cotton and LB Macht
Regulators have a major opportunity to enhance the community care of former
state hospital patients through their power to authorize additional general
hospital psychiatric beds. The authors propose a series of clinical
criteria for such regulators based on a review of state hospital
admissions. These include provisions for patients who have chronic illness
with repeated hospitalizations, who are involuntarily admitted, who have
alcoholism, and who are impoverished. Further implications for general
hospital units include specific changes in their treatment strategy, their
links to facilities for ambulatory patients, and their provisions for staff
education and support.
