Ethics and compliance committee flags higher psychiatric and detox wait times; board to reassess targets

The McHenry County Mental Health Board’s Ethics & Compliance Committee presented audit results and raised concerns about service wait times across parts of the network, notably psychiatric appointments and detox beds.

Amy, reporting for the committee, said the group completed 32 audits with one pending and identified increases in psychiatric wait times and a "particularly concerning increase" in wait times for substance-abuse detox services and some IDD services. "Many times, those are as a result of capacity, where there just simply isn't the ability to take on more," Amy said, summarizing the committee's findings.

Board members questioned whether the network's target metrics are realistic for McHenry County. One member observed that national averages were being used and suggested the targets should be adjusted to match local housing and capacity realities. "The network target for housing was pretty high, but the housing availability in McHenry County is so low that that's never gonna be a realistic target for us," a member said.

Members recommended analyzing whether the measurement approach is capturing maintenance of function as well as improvement, and urged the committee to return with suggestions. Amy asked that board members attend the next meeting to continue the discussion and to help give providers clearer direction for the coming year.

Next steps: The Ethics & Compliance Committee will reconvene to review network targets and measurement approaches with staff and providers and return recommendations to the board.