Hospital Protocols Under Review After NYPD Officer Fatally Shot

NEW YORK (AP) — Four days before Alexander Bonds ambushed and killed a New York City police officer, he was in a hospital emergency room getting a psychiatric evaluation. The hospital released him the same day. Now the hospital's actions are under a state review ordered by the governor. St. Barnabas Hospital says it handled Bonds appropriately and welcomes the inquiry. The decision was one psychiatrists across the country make regularly: whether patients pose enough danger to themselves or others to require hospitalization. Practitioners say that it's often a difficult call to make and that even an experienced evaluator can't predict someone's behavior. "Most of the time, it's very complicated. You're trying to make an assessment: Is the person going to a home? Is there family? Are they reliable? What was the specific reason they were brought in? Is that likely to occur again?" said Bea Grause, president of the statewide hospital and health system association HANYS and a former emergency room nurse. Bonds, 34, evidently had a history of mental health problems. There were antidepressant and anti-psychotic medications in his apartment, and his girlfriend told officers she took him to St. Barnabas for the psychiatric evaluation July 1, police said. He was observed for seven to eight hours in the emergency room, where he was seen by a physician and then a psychiatrist, hospital spokesman Steven Clark said. "We believe the proper protocols and standards were met,&...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care News Source Type: news