New Developments in Psychiatric Boarding in Emergency Departments
In July 2023, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and a group of New Hampshire hospitals reached a settlement in a 5-year-long legal dispute over the practice of psychiatric boarding in hospital emergency departments. The hospitals successfully made the novel argument that boarding violates their rights, as well as those of patients. The case is a new and significant development in the legal battles among patients, advocates, hospitals, and states that have arisen as psychiatric boarding remains a pervasive challenge in American emergency departments.