The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has made the decision to utilize the EMResource platform. Many emergency departments and inpatient psychiatric facilities are familiar with and using EMResource, as it is currently utilized by the MDHHS Bureau of Emergency Preparedness, EMS and Systems of Care in another capacity related to public health emergency.
At this time the focus will solely be on tracking psychiatric bed availability. Pending the success of this initiative, MDHHS may expand the focus to tracking the availability of other crisis services such as crisis stabilization units and crisis residentials.
MDHHS has partnered with Michigan Health and Hospital Association (MHA) and CMH Association of Michigan (CMHAM) along with representatives from people with lived experience, psychiatric hospitals, emergency departments, PIHPs, and CMHSPs to modify EMResource to fulfill the legislative requirement for tracking psychiatric bed availability.
Public Act 658(8) of 2018 requires the State of Michigan to implement a statewide psychiatric bed registry, along with the creation of an advisory committee. The advisory group has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the registry. With this recent change to the psychiatric bed registry’s platform, the advisory group will be re-engaged in the coming months to provide support in the modification and implementation of the platform and development of common standards of use.