CONCORD — Gov. Chris Sununu said Wednesday the state must require all acute-care hospitals to create mental health treatment units and that hospital executives “should be ashamed” for failing to accept more mental health patients voluntarily.
The head of the New Hampshire Hospital Association responded that Sununu’s proposal would “enshrine a broken system” and be a bad outcome for hospitals, patients and families.
The conflict highlights the political schism that exists in the wake of a federal judge’s recent decision that orders the state to end the practice of boarding mental health patients in hospital emergency rooms.
As of last week, eight children and 30 adults seeking mental health treatment were housed in hospital emergency rooms around the state.
In her Feb. 23 order, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty did not immediately require an end to the practice, but ordered hospitals and the state Department of Health and Human Services to come up with a timeline to resolve this issue.
“The record is clear; the (HHS) commissioner’s boarding practice commandeers space, staff, and resources in the hospitals’ emergency departments that is needed for other patients and services,” the judge wrote.
In the trailer bill to his proposed state budget, Sununu is now asking the Legislature to require that all acute care hospitals open mental health treatment units.
Only three hospitals are designated receiving facilities (DRF) with beds for mental health treatment, Portsmouth Regional Hospital (16 beds), Elliot Hospital in Manchester (16) and Concord Hospital in Franklin (10).
Sununu’s plan would require the five hospitals in the state with at least 200 beds — Elliot, Concord, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and St. Joseph in Nashua, along with the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon — to accept at least nine beds apiece.
Hospitals with 100 to 200 beds — Wentworth-Douglass in Dover, Portsmouth Regional and Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua — must have at least six beds under Sununu’s plan.
Sununu said he tried for the past three years to convince hospital executives they have to be an equal partner and create enough capacity to treat a growing number of citizens suffering from a mental health crisis.
“Hospitals do not want to be part of the mental health solution,” Sununu said. “They should be ashamed.”
New Hampshire Hospital Association President and CEO Steve Ahnen said Sununu’s proposal is unworkable.
“In response, the administration is now proposing legislation that attempts to absolve itself of responsibility and enshrine a broken system in place. That’s wrong for our patients and families, our hospitals and our entire mental health system,” Ahnen said in a statement.
The state last year purchased Hampstead Hospital to create a state-run, psychiatric inpatient facility for juveniles.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sununu said he offered hospitals administrators millions in federal relief funds for any of them that agreed to become a outpost for DRF beds.
Sununu said the hospital lobby responded by suing just as the state faced a greater inability to find treatment beds due to the chronic workforce shortage in health care.
The state-run New Hampshire Hospital is unable to fill nearly 30 of its beds due to a lack of staffing.
“When we want them to be partners in the community level, they send in their lawyers. Nobody else in the system does that,” Sununu said.
Last December, lawyers for the hospitals asked a Merrimack County Superior Court judge to order an end to emergency-room boarding.
“This latest lawsuit by the hospitals is a horrible example of what our most important community institutions, such as hospitals, are saying — that mental health is not a health issue,” Sununu said.
Ahnen said he remains optimistic that a compromise can be reached.
“Hospitals have long been willing to sit down with the state and all stakeholders to find reasonable solutions to the ED boarding crisis,” Ahnen said.
“It’s long past time to resolve this matter so that patients in acute psychiatric crisis and their families know that New Hampshire is supporting them, and that they will always be able to receive the care and treatment they need to live healthy, productive lives.”
