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The Hospital Career of Today's Mental Patient

IRA FRIEDMAN, PhD; OTTO von MERING, PhD; EDWARD N. HINKO, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1966;14(4):386-392.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE PATTERN of patient movement in mental hospitals appears to be shifting in the direction of earlier discharge for more and more patients. This policy of extensive and rapid discharge has been associated with a series of related phenomena: the increase in readmissions, in readmission rates, in multiple admissions for the same patient, and often, in multiple admissions for the same episode of illness. Because the majority of patients admitted to mental hospitals today are discharged in a relatively short time, this newer course of hospitalization has resulted in the decreased significance of biostatistical indices relating to patterns of retention and release of mental hospital patients. This focus of attention was of primary importance when patients were hospitalized for long (and more varied) periods of time and the readmission rates were low. At that time, it was reasonable to ask whether a given patient would . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
CLEVELAND; PITTSBURGH; CLEVELAND

From the Cleveland Psychiatric Institute, Cleveland (Drs. Friedman and Hinko), and the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh (Dr. von Mering).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication June 25, 1965.

Reprint requests to 1708 Aiken Ave, Cleveland 44109 (Dr. Friedman).

Although the terms "relapse" and "return" or "rehospitalization" may be and often have been used interchangeably, they are of course, not identical. Relapse implies recurrence of symptomatology and this may or may not be accompanied by rehospitalization. Similarly, some patients who are rehospitalized return for reasons other than relapse.

XCPI is a short-term intensive treatment, teaching, and research hospital. It corresponds to the classification Psychopathic Hospital used by the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1957, its listed bed capacity was 365 with an average daily census about 345, and the average duration of hospitalization was between three and four months.

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