Posted by baseball55 on August 13, 2014, at 21:00:26
In reply to Re: a lot of it depends on your Pdoc, posted by LostBoyinNC45 on August 13, 2014, at 19:43:53
There are Pdocs who prefer to hospitalize their outpatients at the drop of a hat if the outpatient mentions the word "suicide," even if the outpatient is not actually suicidal but just maybe needs a medication adjustment.
>I don't know how it works in NC, but my experience is that outpatient p-docs can't hospitalize you at their discretion. First, you have to go through an emergency room and get there somehow (I guess a p-doc could call the police, but they can't really keep you in their office until the police arrive unless you stay willingly.)
Second, the ER pdocs have to assess suicide risk. If you get to the ER and deny being suicidal, they'll probably let you go. The insurance companies certainly won't pay if you're not really suicidal. Third, if the ER docs, in consolation with the outpatient doc, decides to hospitalize you, they can only keep you for three days unless they get a court order and courts are very reluctant to commit people involuntarily.
poster:baseball55
thread:1069369
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140717/msgs/1069728.html