MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WTVF) — Helen Moore was traumatized by the four days she spent in an emergency room waiting for a bed to open at a psychiatric hospital.
She was admitted to Unity Medical Center in Manchester in July of 2020, after telling her therapist she was thinking about suicide. Doctors determined she needed a psychiatric hospital, but she did not have insurance.
She was told she was No. 35 on the waiting list to get into Moccasin Bend, the nearest state-run psychiatric hospital outside of Chattanooga.
"I just wanted help, and I felt like I was being thrown away," Moore said.
What happened to Moore is called Emergency Department Boarding, and state data shows patients often wait for days to get into a state-run psychiatric hospital.
The waiting puts a strain on emergency rooms not equipped to handle mental health patients — and on patients who are experiencing a mental health crisis.
"I remember crying the whole time I was there, every hour. What little bit I slept was the only time I didn't cry," Moore said.
Moore spent her time at the hospital in a small room with no window or TV that was often locked. Nurses told her she could not leave because she might hurt herself.
"It was a holding cell," Moore said. "I referred to it as the torture room."
Nigel Fontenot, Unity Medical Center's Director of Emergency Services, said it is not unusual for mental health patients to wait longer than Moore did.
"A week is not uncommon. I've had people down there for more than two weeks before," Dr. Fontenot said. "It's heartbreaking because you don't have a way to help these people."
The day NewsChannel 5 Investigates was at Unity Hospital, a suicidal patient had been in the emergency department for seven days waiting for a bed at a state psychiatric hospital.
Unity Hospital's Chief Manager, Bappa Mukherji, said the mental health crisis is overwhelming emergency departments.
He said recently five of the hospital's 11 emergency room beds were filled with mental health patients waiting to be transferred.
"Emergency rooms have become the dumping ground for those patients, and we are required by law to take care of anyone who comes in our emergency room," Mukherji said.
He said people without insurance wait longer because they usually have to get into a state hospital like Moccasin Bend.
"If you don't have insurance, that is the place that you pretty much have to go because there is no private psychiatric facility that generally accepts uninsured patients," Mukherji said.
Helen Moore's medical chart shows that wait can be painful.
On July 10, three days after arriving, she asked "why have I not been offered a shower or a toothbrush."
A nurse wrote in her medical chart, "patient informed she needed to ask for her needs that the nursing staff are not mind readers."
"If I were a regular patient, if I were there with a stroke or heart attack or broken leg, they'd have brought towels and washrag to wash up - soap," Moore said.
Licensed Counselor Suzanne Blackwood said the last thing suicidal patients need is the chaotic atmosphere of an emergency room.
"I am concerned that clients will stop asking for help," Blackwood said. "Sadly, a lot of patients come out quite harmed as a result."
The state has a website devoted to Emergency Department Boarding.
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse hired a doctor in 2019 "to reduce the time that psychiatric patients spend in emergency departments."
But data provided by the states shows wait times are increasing. In 2020, patients averaged 23 hours 43 minutes waiting to get into a state psychiatric hospital.
This year, in 2023, the wait rose to 39 hours 48 minutes — nearly two days.
It should be noted the state does not count wait times from the moment a patient comes into the emergency room, but after they are "medically cleared."
Helen Moore spent nearly 12 hours in the hospital waiting for lab tests to show she was "medically cleared" and ready to be transferred.
"When you are in a mental health crisis you need help then, the same as having a heart attack or stroke," Moore said.
Four days after she arrived, Helen was finally transferred to Moccasin Bend.
But she was not admitted — the doctor spoke with her and determined she was no longer suicidal, so she was allowed to go home right then.
Dr. Fontenot said when patients are just sent home with no help, they often end up back in the emergency room.
"You see a lot of repetition of patients," Dr. Fontenot said.
"This is an area that is extremely lacking in attention in this country and people are suffering," Dr. Fontenot said.
Helen Moore said it was not easy to tell her story, but she wanted to speak out to shed light on what is happening.
"I'm not the only person this has happened to. I might be the only person that has said it, but it's out there," Moore said.
State officials declined an on-camera interview but sent an email stating that Tennessee is investing in Crisis Stabilization Units and walk-in centers which "should be utilized more as a viable alternative to inpatient hospitalization for those in a psychiatric crisis."
In an email, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Matthew Parriott, wrote: "We (public and private inpatient psychiatric systems) are doing the best we can serve those in need of inpatient care in the most timely manner possible while struggling with workforce shortages."
"We are hopeful that the salary increases given by Gov. Lee that went into effect in the last six months will assist relating to staffing and help the wait times decrease in the coming year," he wrote.
Emergency Department Boarding is a national problem.
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse provided news articles showing situations in other states where people waited for long periods in emergency departments.
