Headway made, challenges continue in Mass. ER boarding crisis

Despite the passage of a state law in 2021 to address the psychiatric patient ‘boarding’ problem in the state’s hospital emergency rooms, some patients wait more than a year to access specialized treatment, according to a weekly report issued by the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA).
The report, “Capturing a Crisis: Massachusetts Behavioral Health Boarding Metrics” gathers data from Massachusetts acute-care hospitals on weekly boarding and trending patient data.
It tracks patients who are waiting for a behavioral health evaluation, and those who have had an evaluation and are waiting for a bed. Information is broken down by patient age and geographic region and includes boarding in med-surgical units as well as EDs.
The MHA maintains...