Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Accommodating increased mental health patients at Bellevue
1:26:55
ยท
116 sec
Council Member Rivera inquires about how Bellevue Hospital will accommodate the expected increase in mental health patients following the closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Dr. Katz outlines the plans and challenges in addressing this issue.
- Part of the $15 million funding will be used to expand the physical CPEP (Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program) at Bellevue.
- H+H will attempt to hire more mental health clinicians, though staffing challenges are acknowledged.
- Dr. Katz expresses particular concern about seriously mentally ill patients, expecting most to go to Bellevue.
- The closure of Beth Israel's CPEP is expected to significantly impact Bellevue, which is already the busiest H+H hospital for mental health care.
Carlina Rivera
1:26:55
So How do you accommodate that?
Dr. Mitch Katz
1:26:57
Well, so that's well, so I mean, the the portion of the 15,000,000 will will be used to expand the physical CPAP.
1:27:07
We will try to hire as many mental health clinicians as we can.
1:27:12
I don't need additional dollars for the clinical care because they'll, well at least unless all of Medicaid is cut by the federal government which is a different issue that for us to discuss at some point.
1:27:26
But at this moment, right, the operational costs I can cover.
1:27:32
So I've been more worried about just the physical facilities and how whether or not we will be able to do it and we'll, you know, we'll I mean, they're as you know, they're incredibly talented people.
1:27:44
But it that is the thing that I worry the most about.
1:27:48
We have Rivington has agreed, you know, that they would take a similar number of patients as they would have taken from Mount Sinai.
1:27:59
So, you know but all of them will have had to go through our medical emergency department at Bellevue First.
1:28:05
So I'd say that's the group that I particularly worry about to your question.
1:28:11
They will in general, when hospitals close, history has been that there's more scattered than the map would tell you.
1:28:20
When when you look at the map, most people say, okay, well what is the nearest hospital?
1:28:24
But it turns out people's lives are complicated and they don't necessarily go to the nearest hospital which would be Bellevue.
1:28:31
So, you know, until it actually happens, we won't know.
1:28:35
But when it comes to the seriously mentally ill, I think they're all going to go to Bellevue.
1:28:40
And I think that that could pose really tremendous challenges made worse, of course, by the challenges just hiring sufficient mental health staff.