ER Wait For Massachusetts Mentally Ill At Least Four Times Longer Than Average

In Massachusetts, people in mental health crisis who visited an emergency room waited at least four times longer for hospital admission than other people admitted to inpatient care from the emergency room. Those with mental illness waited an average of 16.5 and 21.5 hours before being admitted or transferred to a psychiatric hospital or other facility.  People with physical health issues were admitted or transferred to inpatient care after waiting an average of 4.2 hours and 3.9 hours, respectively.

These findings were reported in “Analysis of Emergency Department Length of Stay for Mental Health Patients at . . .