Medical Detention of Incapacitated Patients.

Abstract

Inpatients with impaired decision-making capacity may attempt to leave the hospital prematurely. When no surrogate decision-maker is available, clinical teams often lack a legal basis to keep these patients. Provisions for emergency treatment and involuntary psychiatric holds are unsuitable and insufficient to address the problem. Clinicians need explicit legal authority to temporarily detain and treat incapacitated and unrepresented patients. Physician and hospital associations should lobby state legislatures to create new statutes for medical incapacity modeled after mental health laws.