Description

Thirty-four-year-old Michael Goldstein (pseudonym) allegedly stabbed to death two persons in the residential hotel a few hours after discharge from Genesee Hospital's Emergency Room. During the emergency room assessment, Goldstein reported feeling suicidal and hearing voices telling him to kill people. Psychiatric social workers and an emergency room physician who interviewed Goldstein discussed their observations by telephone with the on call psychiatrist. The report calls for new policies for hospital emergency rooms requiring that an experienced psychiatrist conduct a personal examination of patients likely to cause serious harm to themselves or others. The lack of such personal evaluations by experienced psychiatrists was a common factor in tragic incidents cited by the Commission.