Why Valleywise Health Is Putting A Courtroom Inside A Hospital

Published: Monday, February 17, 2020 - 12:32pm
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When someone is a danger to themselves or others but refuses treatment, someone — usually a family member or close friend — can ask a judge to force them to get treatment. It’s meant to be a last resort to prevent those with serious mental illness from doing harm.

In order to expedite the path to treatment, those patients often go through court hearings in the hospital itself.

Now, Valleywise Health — the Valley’s public, safety-net hospital system — is opening a new Maricopa County Superior Court room inside its new Maryvale Hospital in West Phoenix to help alleviate backlogs and shorten wait times in ERs and urgent psychiatric care centers.

For more on this, The Show sat down with Gene Cavallo, Valleywise Health’s senior vice president for behavioral health.

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