South Carolina Psychiatric Patient Stuck 38 Days in ER: Health
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When a mentally ill patient arrived at AnMed Health Medical Centers’ emergency room in May, staff at the Anderson, South Carolina, facility scurried to find a hospital with enough room for an admission.
Everywhere was full, including a nearby psychiatric hospital. Unable to find any place that had available beds, the patient spent 13 days languishing in the ER. Such stays are increasingly common at the hospital -- in one case last year a patient was stuck in the ER for 38 days, costing the hospital $56,392 on extra nursing, security and physician care.