Abstract
On April 1, 2008, the Department of Psychiatry was established as a policy approach within Shizuoka City Hospital located in the middle region of Shizuoka prefecture. One of the main purposes of establishing this department is to respond to physical complications in patients hospitalized at psychiatric hospitals in the city area. In December 2009, four beds for psychiatric patients with physical complications were placed within the general ward, and they have since been used for patient car. Although it has not been long since this policy was launched and the number of bed users is still small, challenges and limitations have been identified and faced through the operation of these beds. The details are as follows: 1. Challenges and limitations of bed placement sites and bed fixation; 2. Challenges in the process of hospitalization; and 3. Limitations due to the absence of designated beds for psychiatric patients. A study of these items showed that responses to physical complications are ideal when providing care in general hospital bed-equipped psychiatric departments. However, it is often difficult to establish a new psychiatric ward. Therefore, if beds for psychiatric patients with physical complications are placed within a general ward, it is important to place these beds in wards responding as extensively as possible to physical diseases and to assure involvement in responding to physical complications with both responsibility and authority either equaling or surpassing that of attending doctors managing physical diseases.
