Erie County Medical Center Sucks So Bad for the Mentally Ill — and Here’s the Proof

Jim Kelly might have stayed in Buffalo partially because of his positive experience as a cancer patient at ECMC - but people who arrive at ECMC during the most vulnerable moments of their lives — suicidal, psychotic, traumatized, withdrawing, terrified - do NOT feel the same way as our beloved ex-quarterback.

What they encounter instead of care is often:

• Long waits in chaotic emergency settings

• Minimal assessment

• Rapid sedation

• Security-driven responses

• Involuntary holds with little explanation

• Discharge plans that amount to “good luck.”

“This is not treatment. It’s crowd control with a medical label.”

Emergency departments are already known to be the worst possible environment for psychiatric distress. ECMC’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) amplifies those failures instead of correcting them.

Federal Inspectors Have Documented Serious Safety Failures

This isn’t just lived experience — it’s in inspection reports.

Federal surveys have cited ECMC for:

• Failure to adequately monitor suicidal patients contributing to patient deaths

• Unsafe discharge practices, including clearing psychiatric patients without confirmed placement

• Breakdowns in basic safety protocols within psychiatric emergency settings

These are not paperwork violations. They are life-and-death failures.

“When federal inspectors repeatedly flag psychiatric safety issues, the problem isn’t staffing — it’s culture.”

Abuse, Restraints, and Coercion Are Not Isolated Incidents

Public testimony and inspection findings reveal a disturbing pattern:

• Physical and chemical restraints are used instead of de-escalation

• Security personnel intervening in clinical situations

• Patients harmed during restraint events

• Failures to follow required reporting procedures

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At a 2023 public hearing convened by the New York Attorney General on mental health access in Western New York, multiple witnesses testified about conditions inside ECMC’s psychiatric emergency services.

Survivors described:

• Prolonged confinement

• Lack of therapeutic engagement

• Dehumanizing treatment

• Being made worse — not better — by hospitalization

“If people leave psychiatric care more traumatized than when they arrived, the system has failed — full stop.”

Overcrowding and Understaffing Are Acknowledged — and Still Ignored

ECMC staff themselves have raised alarms.

Nurses and clinicians have publicly described:

• Unsafe patient-to-staff ratios

• Constant overcrowding in CPEP

• Increased violence between patients

• Staff injuries and burnout

ECMC leadership has acknowledged overwhelming demand and limited resources in official testimony.

But acknowledgment without structural change is meaningless.

“A hospital that knows its psychiatric services are unsafe — and continues business as usual — is choosing risk over reform.”

The People Harmed the Most Are the Least Protected

ECMC primarily serves:

• People on Medicaid

• Uninsured patients

• People experiencing homelessness

• Individuals with complex trauma

• People without power, money, or advocates

In American healthcare, that combination almost guarantees worse treatment.

Psychiatric patients are routinely treated as:

• Liabilities

• Risks

• Disruptions

Rarely as people deserving dignity.

“In a system built around liability, the mentally ill become the easiest people to ignore.”

The Revolving Door Is Not an Accident

Patients cycle in and out of ECMC because:

• Crises are suppressed, not addressed

• Medication is prioritized over understanding

• Trauma is ignored

• Discharge plans lack real supports

• Community resources are overstretched or nonexistent

Then the system labels those same patients:

• “Non-compliant”

• “Chronic”

• “Treatment-resistant”

“You cannot call people ‘non-compliant’ when the system never gave them a real chance to recover.”

What Real Accountability Would Look Like

If ECMC were serious about psychiatric care, we would see:

• Independent oversight of CPEP practices

• Drastic reduction in restraints and forced medication

• Trauma-informed crisis alternatives outside the ER

• Safe staffing ratios with trained mental health professionals

• Meaningful discharge planning with housing and community support

• Transparent public reporting of adverse events

Instead, we get:

• Defensive statements

• Incremental tweaks

• And the same harm repeated year after year

  
  

Final Word

Erie County Medical Center is not “under-resourced but trying its best.”

Its psychiatric emergency system has been repeatedly shown — through federal inspections, sworn testimony, and staff warnings — to be unsafe, coercive, and fundamentally misaligned with healing.

If you were harmed there, you are not imagining it. If you felt dehumanized, you are not alone. If you left worse than you arrived, that outcome is documented — not rare.

“A system that treats psychiatric crisis as a threat instead of a human emergency is not broken — it is doing exactly what it was designed to do.”

And that design needs to change!!!

Receipts (Public Record)

The claims above are supported by publicly available government records, inspections, and sworn testimony, including:

Federal / CMS Inspection Findings

• 2015 CMS survey citing failure to properly monitor suicidal patients in ECMC’s emergency department, following a patient suicide

• 2016 CMS survey documenting unsafe psychiatric discharge practices and failures in continuity of care

• 2016 & 2018 CMS findings involving restraint-related incidents, including staff use of force and failures to properly report restraint-associated deaths as required under federal rules

• 2023 CMS “Immediate Jeopardy” finding involving psychiatric emergency safety failures, including assault of a restrained patient by hospital security and serious environmental safety lapses

(These surveys are publicly accessible via CMS records and HospitalInspections.org.)

New York State Attorney General Proceedings

• January 2023 Public Hearing on Mental Health Access in Western New York (Buffalo) convened by the New York Attorney General

• Sworn public testimony from psychiatric survivors, case managers, and advocates describing prolonged confinement, restraint use, neglect, and dehumanizing conditions at ECMC’s CPEP

• Submitted testimony from ECMC leadership, acknowledging overwhelming demand, lack of discharge options, and systemic strain

(Hearing transcripts and submissions are published by the NYS Office of the Attorney General.)

Staffing & Safety Warnings

• Public statements and interviews from ECMC nurses and staff describing unsafe staffing ratios, overcrowding in psychiatric emergency services, patient violence, and staff injury

• ECMC administrative responses acknowledging high patient volume and staffing challenges

(Reported by Buffalo-area investigative and public media outlets.)