AUTHOR=Hirsch Sophie , Flammer Erich , Steinert Tilman 

TITLE=Estimating costs of bedside assessment by a judge in each case of mechanical restraint in Germany after new legislation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1291130

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1291130

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=In 2018, the German Federal Constitutional Court decided that mechanical restraint is the most intrusive coercive measure and its use requires a judge's decision after bedside assessment if lasting longer than 30 minutes. Subsequently, legal changes were realized. The objective of our study was to determine the number of saved coercive episodes and saved hours in seclusion or restraint in 2019 compared to the average of the previous years 2015-2017, as well as costs per saved episode, hour, and case saved from any coercive measure.We used data from the Baden-Wuerttemberg case registry for coercive measures, covering all 32 psychiatric hospitals of the Federal State and 435,767 admissions in the study period. Time expenditure was calculated as 3.5 h with an average of 51.95€ per working hour on the side of the justice system and 1.5 h (45.94 €/h) on the side of the hospital per case.