Thursday, December 18, 2003

Insurer pressure cited as psychiatric stays shortenedBoston Globe story reprinted at the NAMI web site - "... Once considered treatment, hospitalization for psychiatric patients now is viewed more as an emergency stopover, a chance to stabilize suicidal or violent patients so they can be discharged to less-expensive outpatient treatment. The shorter hospital stays are due partly to more effective antidepressant and anti psychotic drugs that allow patients to work and live on their own, a positive development for 54 million Americans with mental illness. But pressure to shorten hospital stays also has come from managed care insurers, which have refused to pay for extensive hospital care. They have helped force down the average stay for psychiatric patients from 25.6 days in 1990 to 9.3 days in 2001, according to the most recent data from the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems...."  
  

WHO says healthcare inequalities are growingFinancial Times story - " Life expectancy is falling and child mortality is rising in the world's poorest countries as the global gap in healthcare widens, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. " The story also notes that " Building up national health systems and capacities was also an integral part of recent WHO initiatives such as the '3 by 5' programme to provide anti-Aids drugs to 3 million people by 2005, a renewed drive to cut maternal mortality and work on mental health." See also the full report (Adobe Acrobat format) at the WHO web site.