In the near future, we plan to introduce legislation to allow EMS to transport patients in crisis to the most appropriate local facilities.

Under current law, EMS is permitted to take patients to only a small list of “receiving facilities.” Those limited options—in conjunction with the mental health crisis in the Commonwealth—lead many patients to hospital emergency departments. Consequently, patients are being boarded in hospital emergency department beds for hours, days and sometimes even months.

Enabling our EMS teams and regional medical councils to collaborate with local law enforcement, co-responders and mobile crisis teams is a step in the right direction in reducing the burden on emergency rooms and making the most appropriate decision for a patient’s care.

As the crisis response system continues to expand in the Commonwealth, crisis walk-ins and behavior health emergency departments and units are becoming increasingly accessible points of care in our communities. This legislation allows for the first stop to be right stop. It puts the patient in the best possible position to receive appropriate, timely care and saves them from the elevated anxiety and unnecessary financial burden of being shifted around to multiple facilities.

Please join us in co-sponsoring this bill to create a more effective system with faster outcomes for individuals struggling with mental & behavioral health and/or substance use disorder.