Florida Baker Act

Florida Baker Act (AKA BA-52)

This post addresses the issues with the Baker Act Process in the state of Florida. Since I have lived in Florida, I have always been under the impression that the Baker Act process was actually a process to provide help and assistance to people when the stress of life becomes overwhelming.

I was sadly mistaken.

Working in the medical field I know we have people every single day brought to our hospital under a baker act. They may be brought in by police or ems. Since the police are required to complete a baker act, they usually always escort them to the emergency room.

First, a little more about baker acts that some may or may not know. A Baker Act in Florida is a court order that can involuntarily hold an individual for up to 72 hours.

Once a the paper work is completed a Psychiatrist will interview the person and determine if they will rescind the baker act or keep the patient for the full 72 hours or if an additional court order is required and that order can hold a person against his will for up to 6 months.

Now of course since we live in an area with a lot of homeless people, they love the baker act and it reflects in how often they are baker acted. When they want food, shelter, and clothing or want to get into the ER to take whatever they want, they call 911 and get EMS and police on scene. They know the drill; they say the right things and they get a free 3 day stay at a local baker act receiving facility. Then they take full advantage of the room service offered by the hospital. These people also usually have to endure many costly procedures to determine they are an alcoholic or drug addict and they tie up a lot of resources that are needed for actual patients.

From time to time when all the baker act facilities are full in our county, the patient will be shipped to anywhere in the state. This will be determined by what baker act facility has a bed. Does not matter about your condition or ability to pay, you get a ride by an ambulance to where ever in the state says they can take one more patient.

Could you imagine being baker acted in St. Petersburg and when you finally get releases you are in Miami or Tallahassee? Sadly the legit patients that need these services are transferred all over the state while the homeless get to stay close to the homeless shelter or tent city they reside in.

The police are also victim to the multiple nursing homes in our area. The nursing home wants to get rid of a patient for a few days, they call 911 and EMS and Police arrive and now your 90 year old grandma suffering from dementia is now transported to the hospital under a baker act. Of course the nursing home reports violent behavior from grandma and tells the police they cannot handle this situation and grandma has got to go for a psych evaluation. The nursing home, which should be able to medicate grandma and keep her there, has figured out a way to get rid of your unruly grandma for at least 3 days.

The nursing home gets a break from her and grandma and the family is billed for all the necessary treatments grandma needed. When in fact the doctor or Psychiatrist could medicate grandma and have the same outcome as they would by taking her to the hospital. Of course the same situation applies here as with the homeless people. Grandma, in her altered mental state will have to endure many costly medical tests to determine she suffers from dementia, which we all knew from the very beginning of this process. This adds up quickly when you look at the ER cost. I think it was 4,000 just for a ct scan and regardless if grandma is sent in once or once a day she will probably have that scan done over and over since the nursing home staff is reporting some altered mental status.

Yet we wonder why medical cost is so outrageous. Sadly dementia is a common problem among the elderly and regardless of how many times the nursing home sends grandma to the er, that is not going to change.

Sorry, have to rant and rave for a couple minutes about the homeless and nursing homes taking advantage of this process.

Once a person arrives at a baker act facility, I have always been under the impression they would be evaluated and treated accordingly if the Psychiatrist found cause to hold them for the entire 72 hours.

I have a friend that was recently baker acted. From the start of this process everything seemed to go wrong. First from the police responding to the scene and they took very little information and never followed up to get statements as they said they would. The friend took off on foot and they called a dog and tracked him down and not once did he make any suicidal statements to the police. Yet based on a 911 call they baker acted him and took him away to PEMHS (Personal Enrichment Mental Health Services)

Once there he was sent to a second location for a morning evaluation by the Psychiatrist. The psychiatrist talked to him the next morning and read the police report and informed him he would have to stay for the full 72 hours based on the police report. Which was erroneous since they never even took a statement from any of the witnesses.

Not once in the 72 hour period was my friend mentally evaluated. Not once was he treated with medications, not once was he diagnosed with any mental health disorder. So what happened to the evaluation and treatment and or diagnosis?

I was able to visit him during the time he was there and we talked about everything that was going on there.

I was even able to talk to his nurse who was an awesome person at 70 and still working full time and she could only say that he needed a time out and hopefully he could take this time to consider why he ended up there.

This entire process is costing we the taxpayers (I would dare say in the) millions with little to no reimbursement from the patients. The sad part is even with the cost associated with this treatment process we cannot even expect the patients to receive proper treatment of which ever mental disorder they may suffer from.

So what is the point in the Baker Act process? Here in Florida is a quick way for a homeless person to get shelter and nursing homes to get rid of unruly patients.

I honestly hope and pray that not every one was treated the same as my friend was during his 72 hour time out.

This process is suppose to be in place to provide services and treatment and make determinations if the patient needs to stay in a treatment facility or they can be treated as an out patient. My friend was not even given a referral of anyone to follow up with.

Now he will have to deal with the fact that the BA-52 will be a part of his permanent record and that he was housed there without any evaluation, treatment or diagnosis. He has already lost a job over the baker act and now gets to deal with any potential employer finding he was baker acted and held for 72 hours and sadly a potential employer will never know he was never treated or diagnosed with a mental health disorder. He has however already felt the impact of the ba-52 being placed on his record.



Want to know more about the Baker Act Process, click here


Want to know more about PEMHS, Click here