Supervisors have already said mental health system is ‘fundamentally broken’
For over a year, Santa Clara County has been in a mental health state of emergency. The County Board of Supervisors openly said our mental health system is “fundamentally broken.” They have acknowledged that the system is in dire need of inpatient acute care services, residential treatment facilities and staffing. Yet, the county has done nothing substantive to prevent 18 inpatient psychiatric beds at Mission Oaks Hospital, part of Good Samaritan, from closing.
If those beds disappear on Aug. 20, only 193 acute psychiatric beds out of 211 will be left to support anyone with commercial insurance, 18 or older. The recommended ratio is 50 beds to 100,000 people, according to the California Hospital Association. Our county of nearly 2 million people is already short 960 beds, according to the Hospital Association’s most recent annual report. Every inpatient psychiatric hospital bed can save a life.
Good Samaritan, owned by multi-billion-dollar conglomerate HCA Healthcare, operates these beds under its general license. This means quality-of-care standards are much higher, staff are paid union wages, and there is greater accountability in how services are provided. The patients admitted must meet specific requirements, which include being an inherent risk to themselves or others or their condition is so severe they are unable to provide for their basic needs.
Former state Sen. Jim Beall told the crowd of protestors, “I honestly don’t know anybody that would ever give a mental health psychiatric facility a 90-day eviction notice. Where will these patients go? Many will remain untreated.”
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