KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Michigan Nurses Association has filed a class action grievance as they try to stop Ascension Borgess ending the use of a specialty facility to treat people in a mental health crisis when they are at the Borgess emergency room.
The hospital opened a new, $1.5 million annex in 2017 for people with a mental health crisis in the emergency room. However, the MNA says Ascension has decided to stop making use of that improvement. Instead, they will be using the space to have general patients next to each other.
Nurses say they have already seen a negative impact on the health and safety of patients and RNs.
The MNA says they are worried about “all the ways a change like this could go wrong” and say they have seen examples of that in the past month.
The MNA adds Ascension Borgess has said that the change is temporary, but the hospital has provided no timeline for when the Annex will go back to being used for its intended purpose.
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