Nevada state psychiatric hospital to lose accreditation

A Nevada state psychiatric hospital is being stripped of its accreditation, but is choosing not to appeal.

It seems a conundrum here: The hospital loses its accreditation and that means they will not be paid by the government, patients will have to be released, transferred to another facility if available and/or others will not be admitted until they apply for and receive a new certification.. There are many who believe the 72 hour hold is sufficient to protect the patient as well as society because psychiatrists and staff are required to determine if there is a present danger to the patient and/or society and only if that does not appear to exist is the patient released.

If the patient does not have any family or caretakers, they are released into the community. Unfortunately, there are an insufficient number of places for community housing and/or locations that can provide an appropriate, albeit temporary period of time for such patients to be sufficiently stabilized to be on their own. It is clear that we have far too many members of society that fall into this category and need ongoing care and treatment. While some pundits will claim we cannot provide appropriate and adequate transitional care for psychiatric patients who are medically challenged, others who are more enlightened including myself passionately believe the billions of dollars we send to foreign countries should first be used to fix this and countless other problems in our own country.

Commentary by Sam Spital, California State Board Licensing Defense Attorney & San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer: