WHEN AN ADDICT FINISHES DETOX

To the Editor:

New York State's heavy use of inpatient detoxification does indeed
relate to issues beyond the hospital, such as lack of housing and
inadequate management of the transition to outpatient treatment.

But it is critical that the public understand that inpatient
detoxification is necessary when a lesser level of care would be
unsafe, such as when patients have seizures, histories of delirium
while detoxifying or cannot abstain from drugs or alcohol after
several outpatient attempts.

When the state's Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services
asserts that 80 percent of patients in medically managed
detoxification are "uncomplicated," it is using the word the way
Medicaid billing does. This fails to take into account problems such
as mental illness that impede addiction recovery.

Hospitals implicated in this problem must be part of the solution and
address the broader system of services that is failing these patients.

Richard N. Rosenthal, M.D.

New York, April 18, 2007