Officials from New Hampshire Hospital and the New Hampshire Hospital Association presented the SB 177 report to the oversight committee on Nov. 21, summarizing involuntary emergency admission (IEA) transport and restraint data for designated receiving facilities.

Cynthia Cabones, chief community integration officer at New Hampshire Hospital, told the committee the report covers Oct. 2024 through Sept. 2025 and records 1,516 IEA transfers to designated receiving facilities, averaging about 126 transports per month. She said most transports were adults and that mode-of-transport breakdowns included roughly 36% ambulance, 61.5% law enforcement and a small share by other means.

Report findings on restraints: the presenters summarized restraint-status and type statistics in the report: percentages reported included about 47% of transports without restraints and about 51% with restraints applied before transport; the report also separates combination restraint types (reported as 40% in one chart), handcuffs-only (12%), waist-belt only (~46.5%) and a very small share marked unknown.

Process and statutory context: witnesses said statute (discussed in committee as RSA 135-C) sets the IEA standard—identified mental illness causing imminent danger—and a certifying practitioner in an emergency department typically certifies IEA petitions. Kathy Bizarro Thunberg explained a statutory update tied to SB 177 allows clinicians and hospital emergency departments to decide whether ambulance or sheriff transport is appropriate; availability of ambulances can also affect the decision.

Committee questions and safeguards: lawmakers asked about the point-of-origin for transports, whether family-initiated calls and 988/rapid-response teams are captured by the report (presenters said the dataset covers transports from emergency departments to designated receiving facilities and does not capture pre-hospital community responses), and legal safeguards such as probable-cause hearings and counsel for detained individuals.

What’s next: presenters said the numbers have been relatively stable across the six reporting years, but the committee asked for more percentage context and additional breakdowns tied to transport type and restraint incidence.