Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Registries and Registries


Gun Registries
Over on Pete Earley's blog yesterday, he had a guest post by Jessie Close who talks about her fears that some of the new legislation being proposed to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill may compromise her privacy.  Our readers have also expressed fears about what such legislation may bring, and some have said that if psychiatrists are mandated to report dangerous patients to authorities for the purpose of preventing or ending their gun ownership, they will drop out of treatment.  I wanted to respond to the post, but oh, registering and proving that I'm not a robot and waiting to see if I was moderated in or out were too much, so instead I shot Mr. Earley an email, and today I'm the guest poster on his blog.  See A Psychiatrist Speaks About Gun Laws on PeteEarley.com.

Bed Registries
And over on The Baltimore Sun's website, you'll note that another Shrink Rapper is talking about bed registries that would allow ERs to figure out where psych beds are available and to shorten how long patients get stuck waiting in ERs while the staff call around trying to find beds.  Our own photogenic Roy can be seen and heard in Hospitals Team to Find Beds for Psychiatric Patients.     And just in case that's not enough, Roy is also mentioned in a second article on proposed legislation to require hospitals to participate in the registry.  His quote of the day, "That kind of freaked everybody out."  

And in case you're wondering, the baby pictured above is looking for a toy registry, he is not interested in either owning a gun or occupying a psychiatric bed. 

4 comments:

Joel Hassman, MD said...

Careful what you wish for. Creating a registry for accessing inpatient beds can quickly lead to dumping.

Why is it the largest need from Locums these days are for covering inpatient units? Oh yeah, I remember from my residency days, this is NOT a job for someone to do in these days of Mangled Care, quick fix pharmacology interventions, correctional redistributions, quick detox access, chronic care substitutions, and just plain escapes from Axis 4 stressors.

I would greatly appreciate your opinion of what is the half life of a psychiatrist in acute care inpatient settings as of this decade. My guess? 2 years, tops! And that is even if the money is really good.

Sorry, I know my cynicism and jaded commentary is why I have a blog. Just wanted to share. Thank you for the opportunity as allowed.

Anonymous said...

The yellow text is not legible on my phone.

Sunny CA said...

Great article on the Earley blog, but it needs to be seen in some place like the New York Times, so it can have a greater audience.

Dinah said...

I think I tried the NYTimes with the piece that ended up in the Sun. They never like my stuff.

Anyway, SunnyCa, working on it...check back in a few days.

Anon, sorry, we used to do a light blueish-green but that stopped being visible too. A letter to the blogger editor perhaps?