This bill proposes to create a seamless crisis services system that allows high-risk patients timely access to inpatient care and to increase communication within the crisis services system to better manage patients after discharge. The purpose of this bill is to save lives and improve the overall quality and integrity of the crisis services system by:
1. Creating a single point of entry for a high-risk patient by designating an independent entity of a hospital to provide clinical assessment of the patient and determine whether the patient meets inpatient criteria of care;
2. Adopting universal criteria under which priority admission for a patient is based on acuteness of crisis and length of stay in an emergency room;
3. Requiring hospitals to communicate with and make referrals to community providers for aftercare within 24 hours following discharge from the emergency room or inpatient treatment when patients are most at risk of suicide; and
4. Exploring further significant upgrades, access and training in developing prevention and postintervention services with the goal of avoiding hospitalization of patients with mental illness who are not in need of psychiatric hospitalization and can be stabilized in the community.