N.H. hospitals seek to intervene in psychiatric care lawsuit

The New Hampshire Hospital Association, along with hospitals across the state, recently filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed against the state last November for failure to provide timely probable cause hearings for patients in an acute psychiatric crisis. The class action lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire. “While one hospital was named as a party to the lawsuit, hospitals across New Hampshire are intervening in the suit on behalf of our patients because the state is not only depriving them of their constitutional and statutory rights to due process but also failing to provide timely treatment for those patients in an acute psychiatric crisis as required by state law,” said NHHA President Steve Ahnen. “The ACLU-NH explicitly excluded this important element from their lawsuit. Because this issue is so fundamental to the challenges facing our patients and the broader mental health system, it is imperative that the court address this issue as part of the ACLU’s litigation.”