BETA Healthcare Group is pleased to announce the online availability of our new ED Toolkit titled "Management of Mental Health Patients in the ED." It addresses the mental health crisis in emergency departments in California by outlining actionable steps hospitals can take to protect mental health patients held in the ED setting pending placement at a licensed mental health facility, while also maintaining staff safety.

Click here to access or download the ED Toolkit.

Highlights of the Toolkit:
• Tools and techniques for creating a safe environment
• Assessing for behavioral & mental health and communicating effectively in triage situations
• Training staff to boost comfort and confidence in working with mental health patients
• The role and use of telepsychiatry to facilitate prompt patient treatment
• Developing an appropriate discharge plan and effective follow-up instructions

The Management of Mental Health Patients in the ED Toolkit is a guide and resource that you can use in review of your own facility's current policies and procedures. BETA Healthcare Group also offers members complimentary 1:1 consultations and ED Risk Assessments to help hospitals improve patient and employee safety and reduce professional liability.

The new ED Toolkit is the result of 2 years of work by members of BETA's Emergency Medicine Council (EMC), comprised of experts in law, risk management and patient safety, claims management, medicine, nursing, and employee safety. The mission of the EMC is to provide guidance from a risk management and safety perspective that is evidence-based and consistent with established standards of care, and the ED Toolkit meets its goal of identifying best practice models to address widespread challenges in emergency departments.