3 months ago
Central State Hospital says it's temporarily stopped accepting new patients.
Tom Wilson with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities says the hospital is on diversion.
Wilson says that's a designation commonly used when hospitals are close to capacity to keep it from being overloaded.
However, Wilson says Central State Hospital isn't close to capacity, and the diversion will allow the department to work on some concerns in the facility.
He says the problems fall into three main categories:
- Patient on patient assaults, including developing tools to assess which patients might be at risk of harming others
- Environmental problems with the facility's building
- Treatment problems and indicators of ineffective treatment such as readmission rate
Wilson says the diversion is temporary, but open-ended.
