AG James announced a landmark settlement with Westchester County Health Care Corporation (WMC) and HealthAlliance, Inc. (HealthAlliance), collectively known as WMCHealth, that will expand access to inpatient psychiatric care in the Hudson Valley and overhaul how the hospital system treats patients experiencing mental health crises. An Office of the Attorney General (OAG) investigation found that three WMCHealth hospitals in the Hudson Valley – Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla (WMC-Valhalla), MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie, and HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston – put vulnerable patients at risk by discharging them without adequate mental health crisis evaluation or stabilization and improperly left much-needed inpatient psychiatric beds closed for years. Under the settlement, WMCHealth has agreed to restore inpatient psychiatric beds that were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and implement extensive reforms to better serve emergency room patients experiencing mental health and substance use challenges.

“For too long, vulnerable New Yorkers experiencing mental health or substance use crises have been met with inadequate care when they went to an emergency room for help. Mental health care is medical care, and mental health crises must be treated as the emergencies they are. This settlement should serve as a patient care model for hospitals in every corner of our great state. My office will continue to fight to ensure all New Yorkers have access to quality, compassionate emergency mental health care."- AG James