I was recently involuntarily hospitalized for a week, and during the admission/intake process I was strip searched and forced to shower. I’m not here to complain, I’m just wondering why they have to treat us like prisoners?

  • AfghanPrincess1012@lemmy.worldOP
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    29 days ago

    Thanks for all this info. I was placed in a local mental hospital for threatening to unalive myself a few times, including to a police officer so I was seen as an acute threat to myself, which is ridiculous because I recovered by the time I got out, which as I mentioned before was only a week so couldn’t have been that serious!

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      29 days ago

      The cops will also completely lie their asses off. I once received a patient with an O2 sat in the shitter who had been in the back of a cop car coming down from the mountains for 2 hours. When we got oxygen on him he cleared up significantly which suggests that he was mostly hypoxic and likely not experiencing as severe of a (if any) psychiatric crisis as was reported. Part of that is the transferring ERs fault but part of that is also the cops not having enough training (or fucks to give). They all just saw schizophrenia in the health history and didn’t assess any further. When we called rapid response the RRT nurse and intensivist asked when his last known well was and looked at me like I had two heads when I explained that he’d been in the back of a cop car for two hours. My sisters in christ, there could have been a rabid raccoon back there and the cops wouldn’t have known, wouldn’t have cared, and certainly wouldn’t have told me the truth anyway.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
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      29 days ago

      Oh and I forgot but added above:

      f) I almost forgot! All hospitals these days are actually supposed to do a full body skin check! A regular medical hospital patient who is voluntary could be just documented as having refused (but they also don’t pose the same risks!) but we are actually supposed to check for fall and pressure injuries on admission! Fall and pressure injuries are actually reportable events and depending on the severity we can actually get in a LOT of trouble if we can’t prove they were already there on admission and especially if we didn’t even try to look. This is part of why most places require TWO licensed staff members (a CNA is only a cert!) to inspect all patients. This can affect minor things like billing (well, I think it’s minor, my boss disagrees!) or if it’s very severe even be grounds for malpractice. Self inflicted injuries during your stay are less likely to be determined as the facilitie’s fault, but it’s still possible.

      • AfghanPrincess1012@lemmy.worldOP
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        29 days ago

        I had to strip naked in front of a (thankfully female) nurse and security guard, they documented any injuries, then i had to squat and cough. It was really gross