Resolution - CHA — File 197032

R E S O L U T I O N WHEREAS, It has come to the City of Somerville and the Board of Aldermen's attention that the Cambridge Health Alliance is seeking to reduce its operating costs by consolidating the Cambridge Hospital's Psychiatric Emergency Room, which has a separate entrance from the main Emergency Room that features additional security staff, cameras for monitoring patient safety, and staff specially trained to triage, assess and treat those experiencing psychiatric emergencies, with its main Emergency Room entrance; and WHEREAS, This consolidation, which is scheduled to go into effect in June 2014, has caused a great deal of concern to psychiatric professionals at the Cambridge Hospital, as well as to all those who respond to and attempt to assist those in the midst of a psychiatric emergency. The fear is that this consolidation will ultimately compromise the care, safety, and treatment of the psychiatric patients and of the general ER patients; and WHEREAS, It is estimated that approximately 2,500 patients visit the Psychiatric Emergency Room annually and this ER is specifically designed to ensure that these patients are seen in an environment that minimizes the potential safety risks to patients, while maximizing the level of emergency care available to them. It is feared that the loss of this specially-designated wing of the hospital's ER will result in a degradation of psychiatric emergency treatment available in Somerville and Cambridge; and WHEREAS, It is particularly troubling that the Cambridge Health Alliance has neglected to reach out to its community partners, including the Somerville Board of Aldermen, to alert them to this looming consolidation, in light of the very similar public outcry when the CHA sought to consolidate its child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric units, which would have reduced the number of beds available to serve youth with mental health issues, in May 2013; and WHEREAS, It is critical that the Cambridge Health Alliance recognize that the changes it is proposing will have a significant, negative impact upon the people of Somerville and Cambridge, who rely upon this Emergency Room for critical psychiatric care and who depend upon the institution to instill public confidence in the services it provides; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the Somerville Board of Aldermen formally goes on record in urging the Cambridge Health Alliance to reverse its decision to consolidate its Psychiatric Emergency Room with its general Emergency Room; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Somerville Board of Aldermen strongly urges representatives of the CHA to appear before this Board’s Committee on Public Health and Public Safety, to determine if there are alternative scenarios that may be considered to preserve this essential service; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City Clerk is hereby requested to forward a suitably engrossed copy of this resolution to Patrick Wardell, Chief Executive Officer of the Cambridge Health Alliance, Jay Burke, Chief of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance and to the Somerville Delegation to the State Legislature, on behalf of the entire Board of Aldermen.