BILL REQ. #:  H-3575.1 

Read first time 02/04/14.   Referred to Committee on Health Care & Wellness.

     AN ACT Relating to accurate data reporting concerning the practice of psychiatric boarding; adding a new section to chapter 71.05 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   Psychiatric boarding occurs when there is no room for a patient requiring mental health treatment to receive services in an appropriate care setting. Psychiatric boarding can occur for hours or days in emergency departments while patients wait for inpatient treatment in a community hospital or a residential evaluation treatment facility. Patients requiring long-term treatment may be boarded at a community hospital or residential evaluation treatment facility while waiting for a bed at eastern or western state hospital. It is widely recognized that the practice of psychiatric boarding is detrimental to patients and results in failure to deliver necessary treatment in a timely fashion. In recognition of this problem, emerging standards from the joint commission specify patients should not be detained in emergency departments for longer than four hours. Currently, Washington state officials and other policy stakeholders do not have accurate information about the practice of psychiatric boarding within the state because data is not consistently collected. In order to better understand the problem of psychiatric boarding and take appropriate action, the legislature requires accurate information. It is the intent of the legislature to create a process for reporting that provides the data necessary for legislative decision making.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 71.05 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) A report must be made to the department:
     (a) By a designated mental health professional when an individual is detained pursuant to RCW 71.05.150 or 71.05.153, and remains in an emergency department or other care setting that does not provide certified evaluation and treatment facility services for more than four hours after the detention order is issued or the individual is taken into emergency custody; and
     (b) By a regional support network, or other entity contracted with the department to facilitate placement of patients, when an order for ninety or one hundred eighty days of additional treatment is issued pursuant to RCW 71.05.320, and an individual remains in a community hospital or a residential evaluation treatment facility bed for greater than twenty-four hours after the order is issued and prior to transfer to eastern or western state hospital.
     (2) The report required under subsection (1) of this section must contain at a minimum:
     (a) The date of the detention;
     (b) The identity of the regional support network to which the detained individual was assigned;
     (c) The age of the individual detained;
     (d) Reason for the individual's detention;
     (e) Reason the individual was boarded;
     (f) Location of boarding; and
     (g) The amount of time the individual boarded.
     (3) The department shall create a standardized reporting form for the report required under subsection (1) of this section and may require additional reporting elements as it determines are necessary or desirable.
     (4) The department shall create an annual report to be displayed on its web site that accurately displays:
     (a) The number of detained individuals boarded pursuant to subsection (1)(a) and (b) of this section for the year in each regional support network;
     (b) The average amount of time individuals were boarded;
     (c) The most frequent reasons individuals were boarded; and
     (d) The most common location individuals were boarded.
     (5) The report in subsection (4) of this section may not display protected health information as that term is used in the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996, nor information contained in mental health treatment records as that term is used in chapter 70.02 RCW or elsewhere in state law, and must otherwise be compliant with state and federal privacy laws.