Miracle at the Hospital

Do miracles happen? The last few days at work, that seems to be the case. Last week the psychiatric units (our hospital has three), was bursting at the seams with patients, then all of a sudden this week, we lost more than half of them. No, they didn’t die, they just got discharged. Did we finally find a cure for psychiatric problems, or are we witnessing a miracle at the hospital? At the rate that we have been discharging patients this week we would be empty by next week and all the mental health staff would be joining the unemployment line. But wait! I just realized that it’s the beginning of the month and the patients just got their disability checks from the government. Those checks can make them well more quickly than a miracle. That is until the money runs out and they get sick again. A quick recovery followed by a quick relapse. It happens every month. Such is the business of mental health care in California and perhaps America.