Trachtenberg R L
National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals.
Health Syst Rev. 1992 Nov-Dec;25(6):31-3.
When Robert L. Trachtenberg took over the executive directorship of the National Association of Private Psychiatric Hospitals some five months ago, he walked into a situation wherein several psychiatric specialty hospitals in Texas were under fire. "There were a lot of questions," Trachtenberg says, "and challenges to the credibility of psychiatric hospitals." He was referring to the Texas state investigation into abuses by personnel within psychiatric hospitals. Last year, the Texas Senate Interim Committee on Health and Human Services conducted an eight-month investigation into the conduct of the state's psychiatric hospitals after a newspaper article recounted the unconventional way in which a 14-year old boy was picked up and admitted to a psychiatric facility. After a number of public hearings, three private agencies overseeing Texas psychiatric hospitals adopted rules to prevent further problems in the areas of patient rights, fraudulent billing, patient recruitment and the admission and discharge process. The Senate Interim Committee, however, felt these rules needed to be codified into law and has drafted over 30 bills to be presented to the Texas legislature as omnibus legislation next January. Trachtenberg went to work to iron out methods to encourage better overseeing and state governance, as well as tackling the related issues of standards of care and managed care/utilization review. His background as Deputy Administrator of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration within HHS provided him with a broad spectrum of knowledge about the field of psychiatry and its problems, and his vast experience in federal government--over 32 years of running domestic programs--enable him to have a keen sense of what can get done, and how. Health Systems REVIEW recently discussed the role of the NAPPH under its new leader, Bob Trachtenberg. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
大约五个月前，罗伯特·L·特拉赫滕贝格接任了美国私立精神病医院协会的执行董事一职，他接手时面临着这样一种局面：得克萨斯州的几家精神病专科医院正受到抨击。“问题诸多，”特拉赫滕贝格说，“精神病医院的信誉也受到了挑战。”他指的是得克萨斯州对精神病医院工作人员虐待行为的调查。去年，在一篇报纸文章详细描述了一名14岁男孩被送进精神病院的非常规方式后，得克萨斯州参议院卫生与公众服务临时委员会对该州精神病医院的行为进行了为期八个月的调查。经过多次公开听证会，负责监督得克萨斯州精神病医院的三家私人机构制定了规则，以防止在患者权利、欺诈性计费、患者招募以及入院和出院流程等方面出现更多问题。然而，参议院临时委员会认为这些规则需要编纂成法律，并已起草了30多项法案，将于明年1月作为综合立法提交给得克萨斯州立法机构。特拉赫滕贝格着手制定方法，以鼓励加强监督和州政府治理，同时解决护理标准以及管理式医疗/利用审查等相关问题。他曾担任美国卫生与公众服务部下属的酒精、药物滥用和心理健康管理局副局长，这使他对精神病学领域及其问题有广泛的了解，而他在联邦政府的丰富经验——超过32年管理国内项目的经验——使他能够敏锐地意识到什么能做成以及如何去做。《卫生系统评论》最近讨论了美国私立精神病医院协会在其新领导人鲍勃·特拉赫滕贝格领导下所扮演的角色。以下是那次谈话的编辑版本。
