Wilkes Medical Center security personnel assuming control of involuntarily committed patients
Wilkes PA October 31 2019
Wilkes Medical Center security personnel have assumed responsibility for mental health patients brought there with involuntarily commitment (IVC) orders, said North Wilkesboro Police Chief Joe Rankin during a town board work session Thursday.
North Wilkesboro police officers have for years taken town residents with these court orders awaiting treatment to the local hospital, where officers had to remain with them, sometimes for hours, until medical staff took over or Wilkes Sheriff’s Office deputies transported them to mental health facilities.
Rankin said that under a policy started Oct. 1 by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which leases the hospital from the town, Wilkes Medical Center security officers assumed the responsibility of attending to IVC patients until they’re admitted there or transported to a mental health-care facility.
This new arrangement has been approved by the Wilkes Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro.
Chief Deputy David Carson said in an interview that it relieves Wilkes Sheriff’s Office deputies of a responsibility that typically results in them having to wait with people with IVC orders at Wilkes Medical Center for over a week and in the past sometimes for over a month.
Rankin said, “Our officers will be released after about a 15-to-30-minute period to evaluate the patients and make sure it’s okay for us to leave.”
The change resulted from Senate Bill 630, approved in the 2017-18 legislative session.
It mandates involuntary commitment transportation agreements for the custody and transportation of people with IVC orders.
Town Manager Wilson Hooper said the bill is “designed to improve and make more uniform mental-health care across the state, so that whole bill is good news.”
The IVC agreement will be on the town board’s Nov. 7 meeting agenda for approval.
