Christopher S Blackman

Oct 5, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Courtney Markham-Abedi |Joshua Liao |Christopher S Blackman |Nicholas Bascou

I started my career at a state hospital but transitioned to a VA hospital in 2007. I had been a resident at the hospital and was familiar with the unit and population. The unit had 19 beds, and typically these were filled. Often, admissions were for crisis stabilization due to suicidal ideation, and recidivism was very high. Typically, an unmet need other than psychiatric care was being addressed in many of these admissions.

Feb 2, 2023 | kevinmd.com | Edwin Leap |Catherine Spaulding |Christopher S Blackman |Mark Kelley

I recently worked an evening shift in the emergency department the day before New Year’s Eve. Patients arrived in waves, by car and by ambulance. They seemed to check into the triage area every few minutes. When I left at midnight, there were 23 patients awaiting admission in the ER waiting for four, six, 12 or more hours — some for a full day. Simultaneously, there were about 20 waiting to be seen in a waiting room bursting at the seams, not only with illness and injury but with frustration.