It has been a month since President Trump declared a state of national emergency due to the COVID pandemic—March 13. Coincidentally, on that same day, the noted psychiatrist and writer Dinah Miller published an excellent article in Clinical Psychiatry News (https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/219014/schizophrenia-other-psychotic-disorders/coronavirus-inpatient-unit-new) entitled Coronavirus on the Inpatient Unit: A New Challenge for Psychiatry. In that article, …
Inpatient Psychiatry Blog
News and updates on policy, regulations, and mental health care issues.
DMH Expands Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Scope for COVID
On Friday, April 3, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) issued an emergency expansion of what nurse practitioners are allowed to do on psychiatric inpatient units. For the duration of the COVID related state of emergency, NPs can now: Assess whether a patient is competent to sign in voluntarily to the hospital (called a …
CDC and the Great Face Mask Dithering
This morning, my COVID news feed is filled with articles about how CDC is considering recommending that everybody wear face masks (eg., “C.D.C. Weighs Advising Everyone to Wear a Mask,” New York Times.) It’s about time. We’ve known that those countries that have required universal masking (like China, South Korea, and Singapore) have been the …
How to Social Distance on the Psych Unit
Social distancing on a psychiatric inpatient unit is not easy but it must be done. Here are some tips. It’s helpful to break these strategies out into four categories: visitors, patient/patient, staff/staff, and staff/patient. Visitor distancing First of all, restrict all “routine” visits, meaning friend and family visits. The only visitors allowed should be those …
Telehealth for Inpatient Psychiatry: Strategies in the Age of COVID-19
As I mentioned in my last post on social distancing strategies, these techniques are very difficult on our typically crowded and small inpatient units. The ultimate social distancing technique is to avoid setting foot in the unit, which is where telehealth comes in. Remote treatment has rapidly become the standard for psychiatric outpatient care during …
Should We Allow Smartphones on the Psych Unit?
It’s a bit of dogma that goes rarely challenged in inpatient psychiatry—patients can’t use smartphones. There are multiple reasons for this, ranging from privacy issues (patients might Instagram other patients), clinical issues (patients might isolate themselves and not go to groups), safety issues (they might break and use the screen glass for self harm), and …