Dive Brief:

• Last month the Supreme Court in Washington state ruled that "psychiatric boarding"—admitting patients with mental illness to a hospital but leaving them in the emergency department until psychiatric beds are open—violates the Involuntary Treatment Act. This past week, the same court agreed to a 120-day stay on the ban to allow the state to find more beds for these patients. The ruling will go into effect on December 26.
• Jane Beyer, assistant secretary for the Behavioral Health and Service Integration Administration, said she will work with treatment programs, the state legislature and local communities to find more options for these patients.
• Advocates of the ban were unhappy with the ruling, saying the state has had time to fix the problem and were now just being given more time to violate patients' rights. People against the ban claim the state needs time to understand and meet the needs of these patients.

Dive Insight:

Patients with mental illness are increasingly being served in emergency rooms across the country. Washington state does not keep records on the number of patients boarded, but the Seattle Times did its own analysis and estimated that in 2012, 2,160 patients with mental illness were involuntarily held in emergency rooms just in King County.

The state crunched numbers and estimated there was a need for about 200 more beds. Governor Jay Inslee has allotted $30 million to secure 145 beds to meet immediate need.