The commissioner of the Department of Mental Health said officials “inadvertently double counted” a key category of patients, making it appear that the number of adult emergency admissions for mental health cases had gone way up. There was also a large increase reported in forensic admissions — those typically involve criminal cases — that turned out to be inaccurate as well.
A revised report was recently put up on the department’s website. The report was required as part of Act 79, which passed in 2012 and lays out the reform of the mental health system after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene closed the state’s psychiatric hospital in 2011.
Instead of 547 emergency admissions and 80 forensic admissions for 2016, the actual numbers were 455 emergency admissions and 57 forensic admissions. Those correct figures were roughly the same as the year before. The incorrect figures appeared to show a dramatic spike in admissions.
Commissioner Melissa Bailey and Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, said the data errors should not be interpreted to mean the state doesn’t have a mental health crisis. A lack of beds in the mental health system has led some Vermonters to be kept in hospital emergency rooms.
“I believe the policy issues remain,” Bailey said.
Donahue, who is considered one of the Legislature’s experts on mental health issues, called the error “significant,” but she stressed there was still an ongoing capacity problem, with too many Vermonters admitted to emergency rooms for mental health care.
“It’s very significant at a somewhat high level,” Donahue said. “We all know we have a huge problem. (The error) has no impact on the question of whether or not there’s a problem.” The significance of the error, she said, was that officials didn’t have to try to figure out what was causing the apparent spike, which might require a different response than the ongoing problem.
The mental health system in Vermont has had capacity problems since the closure of the Vermont State Hospital after Tropical Storm Irene.
Emma Harrigan, the quality management director at the Department of Mental Health, said the double counting happened after officials failed to update a section of computer code.
