Otis the Drunk......
The other day I needed a snap-ring for a project I was working on at home. No problem, I thought; I have a huge snap-ring assortment of my own at work, I'll just run fetch it up. When I got there to pick it up, I discovered that someone had dropped the assortment box and contents and not bothered to tell me. Nice. Just dumped everything back inside and squeezed the lid shut. Bastiges.
So now I'm sitting, sorting through a thousand snap-rings, by size, shape, type of use, etc., and I have some time to think. Once I have settled on the type of slow lingering torture I shall visit upon whoever did this, I still have some time left over. So I start wondering....
Why is it that Altru has to admit every drunken slob the PD brings in for de-tox? Whatever happened to the drunk tank in jail? Did somebody choke on their puke and die in jail, and their relatives sue? What is behind this? They can't be left to sleep it off and get tossed out the next day? Now, they get a nice soft bed, meals delivered, all the finest care, and if they're there first on days when the hospital is full, priority over people with legitimate, urgent needs. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
These people seldom can pay for their care, so Altru gets hit for their care. Which means I get hit, through my insurance, and if I have to go there for some legitimate purpose, I have to hope Ol' Otis the Drunk isn't taking up a bed I need.
I'm not talking about some teen being admitted for alcohol poisoning here, by the way. There are legitimate needs to be met, to be sure. But the overwhelming number of admits are repeat offenders, some on a first name basis with staff by virtue of their frequent-flyer status. When society undertakes to tax itself for the means of providing law enforcement, then offenses against the peace and dignity of society like public drunkenness should be a part of that formula. The kind of low-urgency care needed (deserved?) by drunks could, I think, be more affordably provided for by an institution of public incarceration than of public health.
What do our City Fathers and County Comissioners have to say on this? It would be interesting to hear their reasons for this situation having developed.
So now I'm sitting, sorting through a thousand snap-rings, by size, shape, type of use, etc., and I have some time to think. Once I have settled on the type of slow lingering torture I shall visit upon whoever did this, I still have some time left over. So I start wondering....
Why is it that Altru has to admit every drunken slob the PD brings in for de-tox? Whatever happened to the drunk tank in jail? Did somebody choke on their puke and die in jail, and their relatives sue? What is behind this? They can't be left to sleep it off and get tossed out the next day? Now, they get a nice soft bed, meals delivered, all the finest care, and if they're there first on days when the hospital is full, priority over people with legitimate, urgent needs. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
These people seldom can pay for their care, so Altru gets hit for their care. Which means I get hit, through my insurance, and if I have to go there for some legitimate purpose, I have to hope Ol' Otis the Drunk isn't taking up a bed I need.
I'm not talking about some teen being admitted for alcohol poisoning here, by the way. There are legitimate needs to be met, to be sure. But the overwhelming number of admits are repeat offenders, some on a first name basis with staff by virtue of their frequent-flyer status. When society undertakes to tax itself for the means of providing law enforcement, then offenses against the peace and dignity of society like public drunkenness should be a part of that formula. The kind of low-urgency care needed (deserved?) by drunks could, I think, be more affordably provided for by an institution of public incarceration than of public health.
What do our City Fathers and County Comissioners have to say on this? It would be interesting to hear their reasons for this situation having developed.
posted by Good Ol' Boy at 9:46 AM
12 Comments:
""Why is it that Altru has to admit every drunken slob the PD brings in for de-tox? ""
Where did this come from?
Are you sure? I don't believe it's true.
#1 they need the ability to pay or Altru will just hold until there is a bed availaable in Jamestown SH, depending on the following:
#2 they need someone to sign the paperwork for admitance either voluntarily or involuntarily.
#3 if not voluntarily, I believe the paperwork must be signed by: a family member, or law enforcement, or a doctor, or a licensed addiction counselor, etc.
#4 If not voluntarily commited there are 3 points that must be met by ND statute - Must be an emergency situation, they must be a danger to themselves or others, they must have been seen by a doctor.
#5 otherwise they leave before the PD officer gets done with their report
#6 Detox, just to get someone off the street has been found to be illegal.
(These are just off the top of my head, without the proper statute in front of me)
One other small point, not every "drunk" an officer deals with, is a "slob!" You just might be surprised.
#1- No they don't- ask someone who works there
#2&3- It gets signed, you better believe, and it doesn't matter by who.
#4- If they say its an emergency, its an emergency. This one kinda answered itself, didn't it?
#5- Huh? They like it in there- better bed, food, clothes, than a jail cell, and by the time they reach this point, they're done drinking for the night, and are looking for a place to crash. This is tantamount to hitting the Alky's lotto. Plus they change the bed if you mess it, no matter how many times.
#6- Can you cite case law here?
#7 (bonus)- Ask any officer that deals with them what the ratio of happy drunks to miserable, ornery, puking slob drunks is. Go ahead, I'll wait.....
I do ask, since in my day job I deal with the folks that get transported to
the state hospital on a daily basis. I check over the paperwork before the
transport is made among other things.
Altru may admit them, but they call it an emergency if they have a problem
patient and their insurance runs out. The taxpayer then pays the county to
take the person somewhere else.
#5 is semantics, not all folks admited for alcohol are street bums.
#6 A police officer cannot arrest for detox just because someone is intoxicated. The person must be a danger to themselves or others.
Check out: http://www.legis.nd.gov/cencode/t25c031.pdf
Start at: 25-03.1-07
Basically anyone taken in for treatment (which is why the intoxicated person would be there in the first place) has rights that must be followed. Altru may admit them if they require immediate treatment, but they cannot hold them involuntarily without going through all the hoops the law requires.
#7 I already know, I've been doing it for over 24 years.
I fully understand your statements and concerns, I was just throwing a little
light on the subject and maybe didn't do it in a tactfully way. Maybe I should change my moniker to "Tactless" :-)
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So... what's the answer to the question I asked- why are they there, and on a consistent basis, rather than in a drunk tank? We don't have a drunk tank at the PD, do we?
My concern is that we're paying more for the short-term care of these people than we should, and they are at times displacing people who have a greater need than they.
I hope we are not buying into the alcoholism-is-a-disease thing as an excuse to deal with it this way?
Just my lowly opinion here,but they are and will always be here as long as they are are human beings. Humans aren't perfect and never will be. It's job security for law enforcement, addiction counselors, hospitals, etc. as we know prohibition didn't work. :-)
"Drunk tanks" require medical personnel every single minute a person is in "the tank" because if something happened to them, some lawyer would make another mortgage payment.
If you want to hear about our maney paying for stupid things because someone won't take a stand, we need to sit down over a beer or cup of coffee (your choice) some day. There is a lot of money spent in this area just on this subject alone, that doesn't need to be spent.
Well, it seems we agree way more than we disagree, at least. Depending on the time of day, a coffee or beer may be alright.
As someone who knows firsthand about getting such patients, there are more repeat offenders than there are actual people who NEED to be admitted for detox (which I'm not sure I've ever run across, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen).
They don't care to hear about getting help or counseling or stopping drinking. Their bills come back to us because their address is false, and believe it or not, their social security numbers are false, also.
We HAVE to take detox patients if the doc admits them, and sure enough they'll take the last bed on the floor, and then sure enough, another doctor will want to admit a cancer patient or a renal patient (they all go to the same floor: detox, renal and cancer), but there's no bed because Mr. Two-for-One Taps, who is there on a weekly basis and refuses to get treatment or help, has taken a bed.
It's frustrating for all involved. If the person genuinely needs help, that's great that they have realized that and have come to get help. But 9.5 times out of 10, they don't want it. They want a bed, a meal, a shower, and a CNA to wait on them. The mission doesn't take people if they are intoxicated, so the logical next place is....
Sorry about your snap rings.
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