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Podcast: The Podcast by KevinMD
Episode: Fixing the system that fails psychiatric patients
Description: Psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article "The crisis in inpatient psychiatric care." In this episode, Muhamad examines the growing dysfunction within the nation's psychiatric hospital system, where patients in crisis are too often turned away or kept too long because of policy failures, financial pressures, and insurance algorithms that override clinical judgment. Drawing from two decades on the front lines, he describes the moral tension faced by psychiatrists navigating laws that punish both over- and under-admission, and insurers that cut coverage precisely when patients begin to improve. Muhamad calls for a new social...