Mental health crises are straining emergency rooms across Siouxland. Taffy Zoelle, Director of Emergency Department Services at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s, reported that the facility sees up to 120 patients daily, with four to five boarding waiting for mental health beds. Patients arrive experiencing suicidal ideation, schizophrenia, and drug-induced psychosis, and children struggle coping with life challenges without adequate skills.
As of January 2024, Iowa has 901 licensed inpatient psychiatric beds statewide. Only four facilities operate in Siouxland with 78 total beds. “Finding the right placement for those patients is challenging, as there are limited beds in the state of Iowa,” Zoelle explained. The facility’s adult inpatient unit operates at maximum—14 beds—requiring cross-border placements in South Dakota and Omaha, Nebraska for safety.
St. Luke’s employed a new behavioral health coordinator to round on psychiatric unit patients, ensuring appropriate therapy and medication while recommending inpatient or outpatient follow-up and connecting patients to outside resources. The hospital operates one ligature-free behavioral safe room and plans construction of five additional rooms beginning at month’s end, addressing facility shortages.
At the 2024 legislative session, Governor Kim Reynolds signed two behavioral health bills on May 1, Mental Health Awareness Month. House File 2402 provides enhanced rates for psychiatric medical institutions for children with specialized needs and requires therapy services, standardizes MCO authorization, and allows step-down placements. House File 2673 aligns Iowa’s 13 mental health regions and 19 substance use regions into seven unified behavioral health districts to provide consistent, coordinated care and established Thrive Iowa to support at-risk individuals.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.ktiv.com/2024/05/17/mental-health-crisis-impacting-siouxland-emergency-rooms-laws-iowa-working-address-area-psychiatric-medical-institutions/