“No Easy Solutions”
Commenting on the initiative for Medscape Medical News, John M. Oldham, MD, chief of staff at Baylor College of Medicine’s Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas, raised some questions.
“Is it really going to be the treatment unit or a quarantine unit? Because if you don’t have a comparable level of established, effective treatment for these patients, then you’re simply herding them off to a different place where they’re going to suffer both illnesses,” he cautioned.
Nevertheless, Oldham recognized that the issue of how to treat psychiatric patients who test positive for COVID-19 is complex.
“We’re still wrestling with that question here at Menninger. We have created an enclosed section of the inpatient area reserved for this possibility.
“If we have a patient who tests positive, we will immediately put that patient in one of these rooms in the quarantine section. Then we will use protective equipment for our staff to go and provide care for the patient,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that a psychiatric hospital is in no position to treat patients who develop severe illness from COVID-19.
“We’re certainly worried about it,” he said, “because how many inpatient general medical units are going to want to take a significantly symptomatic COVID-19 patient who was in the hospital for being acutely suicidal? There are no easy solutions.”
This article first appeared on Medscape.com.