NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Children in state custody are spending months in Tennessee hospitals as a result of the Department of Children’s Services has no place else to place them.

The youngsters have been medically cleared however tie up hospital beds that may very well be utilized by others, particularly throughout instances of heightened demand.

One baby spent greater than 9 months — 276 days — residing at a youngsters’s hospital after he ought to have been launched.

Some hospital officers inform NewsChannel 5 Investigates they’re changing into a dumping floor for teenagers DCS can not place.

The Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee (CHAT), which represents youngsters’s hospitals statewide, stated in an announcement the kids “account for many hundreds of additional days in which hospital care is not needed.”

TennCare covers the price of hospital care for youngsters in DCS custody however wouldn’t disclose how a lot taxpayers are spending on the prolonged stays.

The Department of Children’s Services stated these youngsters are onerous to position in foster care, and since they’re medically fragile, they can not keep in DCS workplace buildings like another youngsters have been doing.

It typically begins in a pediatric emergency room.

A DCS caseworker takes a baby to the hospital with a real medical downside.

Usually the kids have simply been faraway from an abusive or neglectful residence.

But as soon as the hospital says the kid can depart, DCS says they haven’t any place for the kid to go.

State Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, was disturbed by the small print we confirmed her.

“Our state is failing. I think we’ve failed these children and we’ve quite frankly failed DCS,” Campbell stated.

Examples embody a 10-year-old with Muscular Dystrophy who stayed for 103 days on the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville.

DCS couldn’t discover a placement for the kid after his mom died of COVID and his father couldn’t take care of him.

Another 10-year-old with extreme autism was housed for 51 days in the identical hospital.

He was finally despatched to a facility out of state as a result of DCS didn’t have a spot for him.

And an insulin-dependent diabetic stayed for days as a result of hospital notes reveal “DCS would not take (the child) to office due to insulin shots required.”

“To choose between office floors and hospitals is not a reasonable choice,” Sen. Campbell stated.

DCS left a baby with a psychological well being prognosis at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital for 270 days.

The baby occupied a room from May of 2021 by means of February of 2022.

The company left one other baby at a hospital in Johnson City for 243 days, lengthy after the kid ought to have been launched.

DCS Commissioner Margie Quin, who took over the company in September, instructed Gov. Bill Lee, R-Tennessee, throughout price range hearings the company has been getting calls from hospitals involved about youngsters staying long-term.

“These are youth that are extremely difficult to place,” Quin stated.

“They are staying 100 days in hospitals, and they are not acutely ill, but they can’t stay in an office, and they are not appropriate in transitional homes,” Quin instructed the Governor.

DCS has a scarcity of foster care houses and consequently has been pressured to have some youngsters sleep in workplace buildings.

A DCS legal professional stated “children in wheelchairs can also be hard to place. The hardest situations are those with both medical and behavioral/mental health needs.”

Commissioner Quin requested greater than $8.7 million to fund “Assessment Treatment Homes” that might be positioned throughout the state and would hold among the medically hard-to-place youngsters.

“They really need specialized care, and we just don’t have programming for them,” Commissioner Quin stated within the price range listening to.

Sen. Campbell cannot imagine the state is commonly selecting between workplace flooring and hospital rooms.

“Let’s be responsible and give the money to DCS that we need to take care of children,” Campbell stated.

“Our state has more money right now than we’ve had in decades, in reserves, and there is absolutely no reason why we can’t make sure that we are taking care of our most vulnerable,” Campbell stated.

Lee signaled within the price range listening to that he was keen to fund requests from DCS for extra money.

But even when the price range request is authorised, it’s months away from serving to — elevating questions on what might be performed now.

“These are issues we should absolutely be able to deal with in the Department of Children’s Services without sending kids to the hospital,” Senator Campbell stated.

Here is the complete assertion from the Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee (CHAT):

“Children’s hospitals function the protection internet for the bodily and psychological well being and well-being of youngsters and adolescents. For a few decade, youngsters’s hospitals, in TN and nationally, have seen a major improve within the variety of youth presenting with a major psychological well being prognosis, due to the dearth of available companies and a fragmented supply system for these companies.

Another group of youngsters discovering themselves admitted to the kids’s hospitals in our state are these in DCS custody. These youth are sometimes dropped at pediatric emergency rooms due to a real medical or behavioral want. However, when they’re prepared for discharge, DCS groups are challenged with discovering applicable placement choices, thereby delaying discharge. While these youngsters stay in hospitals, it ties up sources that may very well be utilized by different youngsters. Lengths of hospital stays throughout the state vary from a number of days to months, with one youngsters’s hospital reporting the longest keep of 276 days.

Collectively, these sufferers account for a lot of tons of of further days through which hospital care shouldn’t be wanted. DCS ceaselessly cites restricted to no placement choices and struggles with inadequate sources to adequately workers and help these youngsters of their care. New DCS Commissioner, Margie Quin, just lately acknowledged the problem of lengthy hospital stays for some youngsters and has outlined a plan to sort out this and different points DCS faces by means of essential measures reminiscent of extra funding and elevated coaching and elevated help for case staff.

Mary Nell Bryan, President of the Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee, stated, “The Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee appreciates that the employees of the Department of Children’s Services work hard to address challenges in finding foster homes for children who are medically fragile or dealing with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes.. There are sometimes not enough appropriate places for such transfers to happen quickly. We appreciate that Commissioner Quin has requested more funding and outlined a plan that includes increased training and increased support for case workers. The work of DCS case workers and other DCS staffers is vitally important. As can also be said about those who work in hospitals, while this work can present challenges, it is also extremely rewarding. We urge families to consider fostering children who are medically fragile or who are dealing with a chronic condition such as diabetes.”