A Call for Behavioral Emergency Response Teams in Inpatient Hospital Settings

Area of Science:

• Medical response systems
• Behavioral health crises
• Clinical ethics

Background:

• Rapid response teams (RRTs) are standard for medical emergencies.
• Behavioral emergencies receive less vigorous responses, often treated as security issues.
• Inadequate responses harm patients and clinicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• Advocate for a paradigm shift in managing behavioral emergencies.
• Challenge the perception of behavioral interventions as optional.
• Align behavioral emergency response with medical and ethical principles.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of current hospital response protocols for behavioral emergencies.
• Review of medical and ethics principles related to patient care.
• Argument for the necessity of dedicated behavioral emergency response teams.

Main Results:

• Security-driven approaches to behavioral crises are medically and ethically incompatible.
• Current practices lead to suboptimal patient outcomes and clinician harm.
• A perception exists that behavioral interventions are unnecessary.

Conclusions:

• Behavioral emergencies require a medical, not security, response.
• Implementing dedicated behavioral emergency response teams is crucial.
• A paradigm shift is needed to prioritize patient-centered behavioral interventions.