Psychiatrists fleeing Atascadero State Hospital

“It’s spreading them thin. It’s not good for the treatment of the patients of the safety of the doctors,” said Dr. Stuart Bussey, president of the American Physicians and Dentists union. Gee, that’s nice, Mr. Bussey that you are so concerned with the safety of the doctors. But while they do take a risk working in there it is actually the level of care staff that are in harm’s way everyday, 8 and sometimes 16 hours a day. When too few psychiatrists are attempting to treat too many patients they are spread thin. Often, they don’t know the patients and don’t listen to the floor staff who really know these guys. I have seen it time and again when arrogant doctors dismiss the staff’s concerns about a particular patient and the current medication regimen is not effective or the doctor discontinues their medication altogether, leaving an overtly psychotic and extremely dangerous patient for the staff to deal with while the doctor is off the floor actually spending little time with the patients. When we see behaviors increase we know it is most likely due to inadequate medicating. Happens all the time. This revolving door of psychiatrists needs to stop. We need doctors that are good at what they do, dedicated to working with this population, and that can actually develop a rapport with their patients. Continual moving of psychiatrists from unit to unit leaves patients at the whim of the next doctor that comes on board and thinks he has the ultimate medication regimen and leaves us all in a very dangerous situation then goes home for the weekend. Some of our best doctors are the one who have been there the longest. They know our guys and have honed their skill over time. Except for a few who never listen to staff, just come on a unit and will release a patient from restraints just so they do not have to be bothered in the middle of the night while on-call to come and do another late night assessment or be “bothered” for an updated restraint order via telephone.