H.3585: Emergency Room Rights

Sponsored by Rep. Ruth B. Balser

“An        “An Act pertaining to people with mental illness in hospital emergency rooms”

Contact: Constance Surette, Emergency Room Rights Committee at MPOWER, 781-588-3453 or 617-442-3301 and info@m-powerblog.org

The Emergency Room Rights bill (H.3585) requires the Department of Public Health to collect data on the use of restraints in hospital emergency departments in Massachusetts. DPH licenses EDs in this state. Currently, there are no state laws regulating the use of restraints in EDs. DPH enforces the Patients’ Bill of Rights, but it says nothing about restraints. The only applicable law comes from the federal government’s Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These CMS regulations permit restraint only to “ensure the immediate physical safety” of the patient and others. ED staff is prohibited from using restraint as punishment, for staff convenience, or because of staff shortages.

Nevertheless, we know anecdotally that certain hospital EDs in Massachusetts overuse restraints. Many mental health consumers say being restrained is one of the worst experiences of their lives, much worse than the mental illness itself. People die due to restraints every year. Most recently, a man died in November 2009 after being physically restrained by security guards at Cape Cod Hospital. A Massachusetts Department of Mental Health official has called restraint “the most lethal practice in psychiatry.” The mental health department’s regulations of restraint are among the best in the country, but they are not applicable in EDs.

In the past, DPH has objected to this bill, saying it did not have funding to analyze ED restraint data. Now, the University of Massachusetts Center for Mental Health Services Research has promised to analyze the data at no cost to the Commonwealth. With hard data, policy-makers can better analyze where problems lie and solve them. Transparency is the first step to change.

Since December 2007, DPH & DMH have hosted committees to address consumers’ complaints about mistreatment in EDs. These meetings resulted in licensing requirements ending forced strip searches of psychiatric patients in EDs. The ER Rights bill (H.3585)keep the DPH & DMH committees’ feet to the fire by requiring reporting semi-annually about their progress to the Legislature. Now, in addition to forced clothing removal, they need to address two more issues in emergency departments: restraints and inferior medical care of people with mental health histories.

Please ask your state representatives to support the ER Rights bill (H. 3585)!!! Find who represents you and their phone numbers by calling 1-800-462-8683! Then call 617-722-2000 to ask for your legislators’ offices!