Baltimore patient left at bus stop middle night 30 degree wearing just hospital gown

[NRSKarenRN]

Lack of compassion for troubled patient...University of Maryland Medical Center investigation underway. Karen

From CNN

Patient left at cold bus stop at night, wearing only a hospital gown

A viral video of a recently discharged patient left at a bus stop at night in Baltimore has inspired widespread outrage and prompted an investigation at the hospital where she was treated.The video is distressing to watch -- both for its content and for the questions it raises about the events leading up to it.

A young woman, wearing only a hospital gown and socks, is left standing by a bus stop Tuesday night or early Wednesday as four men in uniforms, possibly security guards, walk away. The man who filmed it, Imamu Baraka, follows them as they leave the stop with an empty wheelchair.

"Wait, so you all are just going to leave this lady out here with no clothes on?" he says. "That is not okay."

One of the men replies it was "due to the circumstances of what happened."

The young woman barely speaks and seems dazed, occasionally crying out. Baraka urges her to sit at the bus stop, where two plastic bags full of the woman's belongings lie on the ground next to a pair of shoes. As she approaches the cold bench, the thin gown exposes her bare skin.

[JKL33]

Who was using the mental health situation in this country to talk about how crappy healthcare providers are?

I used an example of a patient with an actual PE, who was misdiagnosed and forcibly removed from the facility, and who later died.

Did you read the link I provided?

I was referring to the press this has received. In reviewing your words and mine, I see how my comment could be read to be referring solely to you. I meant for my reply to be conversational and was referring to the uproar in general.

Yes, as a matter of fact I visited your link and watched the entire video provided and read a couple of other stories about it too. I wasn't ARGUING with your point of view about subpar medical care to begin with (I thought I said that I agreed with you), I was commenting on the fact that society jumps to loud conclusions when something like this happens and it is hard to sit by while they make their declarative assumptions knowing how bad the situation is with EDs and general and mental health care in this country.

[JKL33]

Of course there is doubt on the patient; none of us knows anything about her. What is being addressed on this thread is how quick people are to pile on the hospital. We also don't know anything about what happened in the hospital.

Of course there is sub-par medical care happening in the country. We just shouldn't automatically jump to the conclusion that that's what happened in this situation. That's the point. We don't know what happened before the video started rolling.

Thank you. I should've read down one more post before replying.

LilNel, believe it or not as you wish, but my interest in responding to your post had nothing at all to do with disagreeing that patients are not always treated right. I know they aren't. Which is why I said "absolutely."

The opinions being voiced on this thread are a direct result of assumptions being made based on very small portions of information.

Much of the public commentary regarding this video naïvely (or perhaps purposely) misses the opportunity to talk about MUCH bigger ED- and mental healthcare-related issues, in favor of vilifying the people or systems caught in the middle.

It is possible that this patient presented with an extremely concerning medical or psychiatric situation, and even though equipped to handle such situations, for one reason or another, the folks in this ED all convinced each other that the best thing to do was to wheel her out to the bus stop for no particular reason, not even affording her the time/dignity to put her own clothes back on. I personally don't think that's very likely.

Is it possible that this was a complicated and difficult situation where different (better) decisions could have been made? Yes.

Is it possible that there is way more to this than what the video is set up to show and there weren't many good alternatives? Yep.

[Munch]

THANK YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hospitals are ACUTE. CARE. FACILITIES. Not daycares. Not babysitters. Not SNFs. Not ALFs. Not homeless shelters.

I work in a hospital not unlike the hospital in the article. Innercity hospital with large population of drug addicts, vagrants, mentally ill, high crime etc. People are constantly trying to utilize the hospital for shelter and food because its better than jail or the homeless shelter. We have a very large psych floor and a seperate psych ED. But even still the floor is always full, the psych ED always so full the regular ED takes overflow. So the bar is set high for admission, the net simply isn't large enough to catch everyone.

Obviously we dont know the whole story with this woman but just having a psychiatric diagnosis isn't enough to gain admission to the hospital. Also if a doctor wants to 939 someone here in NY they have a right to appear in front of a judge to petition for their release within a certain amount of time. So a doctor goes and involuntarily commits someone only to have a judge release them shortly after..why do that when that coveted bed could have went to someone who actually meets admission criteria and actually wants to get better? Not to mention people with chronic, severe and debilitating mental illness need to be in a place that can treat them long term. Acute care hospitals aren't the place for that. My hospital sends people out to state hospitals(assuming they have a bed available) if they haven't improved after a certain amount of time.

Its so easy to point fingers and assign blame to this hospital without knowing what really happened. This woman had her clothes. I find it pretty outlandish that hospital staff threw her out of the hospital without giving her the opportunity to change.