State hospital.

[ARNPsomeday]

I work on a floor of the local state hospital with 43 mixed male and female acute psych patients. It is an unmanagable situation at times. I think 16 patients of the same sex is the optimal census for a unit.

(This quote is from another thread right here in Psych Nursing.)

Hi RickRN,

In your local state hospital on your psych floor, are the patients in custody? Is that what "state hospital" means? This is a beginner's question and I would like to learn. Thanks.

[RickRN]

Most are mental Health Board commits, maybe one VpG and a couple court ordered. No voluntary admissions for over 2 years now. The doors are locked and patients cannot leave. State Hospital does not always mean people are there against their will, but in our case, that is what almost always happens.

[ARNPsomeday]

Most are mental Health Board commits, maybe one VpG and a couple court ordered. No voluntary admissions for over 2 years now. The doors are locked and patients cannot leave. State Hospital does not always mean people are there against their will, but in our case, that is what almost always happens.

Thanks for explaining!

What is VpG?

Does your hospital treat psych only?

[RickRN]

Thanks for explaining!

What is VpG?

Does your hospital treat psych only?

Yes, Psych only including sex offenders.

VpG = Voluntary per Guardian

[LPN_mn]

I work in a State Hospital (Regional Treatment Center) and all of our patients are court ordered. We have MI&D (Mentally Ill and Dangerous) units and we have Sex Offender units. They used to take self commited persons but not any more. In my opinion I think that most state hospitals don't take self commited persons anymore because they are so full with the court committed people. We have patients that are as young as 17 years old.

[Bjo]

Our State hospital takes anyone. We have court committed, voluntary, and emergency admits. We also have forensic patients who have been there for many years. After the patients are sent on an emergency pink slip, the doctors have to decide whether or not they need to stay. If the patients sign a voluntary, they stay until the doctor discharges them. If they won't sign a voluntary and the doctor thinks they are in need of further treatment then the doctor signs for them to go to probate court where the judge will decide if they need to stay. They can be committed for 90 days to two years. We are regulated by the local mental health boards and it depends on which county the patients are from as to what hospital they can be admitted to.