GREATER BALTIMORE MEDICAL CENTER

Pediatric and Adult Emergency Departments

At Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the Pediatric and Adult Emergency Departments serve young patients facing behavioral health crises. Over the past five years, pediatric behavioral health volumes have continued to climb. Limited inpatient psychiatric and residential treatment centers across the state, paired with long wait lists for outpatient therapy, leave patients and families to seek help in the Emergency Department.

GBMC does not offer inpatient psychiatric treatment for pediatrics. After evaluation, any patient requiring inpatient care remains in the ER until a bed opens at an outside facility, a wait that can stretch from a few hours to days or even weeks. During that time, these patients receive no therapy. Nurses intervene as best they can, delivering care around the clock without the resources an inpatient psychiatric facility can provide.

Beyond this population, the team also cares for young patients with mental health challenges who need long-term placements. Many of these children have stayed for months, receiving few interactions from their guardians along the way. Often, they simply want someone to play a card game or talk with them, and staff balance that attention while managing medical patients at the same time.

A shortage of community placements means some of these children spend thousands of hours in the ER and become part of the team. Staff have used their own money to buy birthday and holiday gifts, food when the children grow tired of hospital meals and clothing for the day they are finally placed. Watching a child remain in the hospital with no place to go is painful, and the team feels the weight of what an ER cannot provide: socialization with other children, time outside and therapy to work through their struggles. The system is failing these kids for lack of community resources. Still, the team keeps them safe, brightens their days, listens and offers a shoulder to cry on.