Arizona hospital's new wing plans to provide emergency psychiatric services

From The Arizona Republic:

A $2.2 million renovation project (pictured) at Banner Behavioral Health Hospital in Scottsdale will create a new center aimed at preventing patients in psychiatric crisis from lingering in emergency departments without proper assessment and care.

Banner Psychiatric Center will include room for 23 patients and an observation area, and will be staffed around the clock with physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, behavioral health technicians and counselors. It is expected to open Aug. 30. Banner Behavioral Health Hospital is on the southwestern corner of Miller Road and Earll Drive.

The center will run in collaboration with the Urgent Psychiatric Center in downtown Phoenix.

"The Valley is very lean on (psychiatric) crisis services and when the patients hit the emergency departments they often end up in inpatient status," said Jeff Buehrle, Banner Health's CFO of the Arizona East Region. "By adding this additional outpatient service, we should be able to manage patients in an outpatient setting rather than in an inpatient setting."

Patients in hospital emergency rooms are not receiving psychiatric care because the departments are not equipped to provide it, said Dr. Robert Williamson, medical director for Banner Psychiatric Center and ConnectionsAZ, the physicians group that will manage the new center.

The delivery of psychiatric health care should be similar to medical health care, in which patients are immediately seen by doctors, who assess and stabilize them, and determine whether they need to be hospitalized, he said.

"It's really expensive to put somebody in the hospital when it's not necessary, so we can really decrease the cost of psychiatric care for the community," Williamson said.

Nearly 36,000 adults and children statewide with varying degrees of mental illness and substance abuse problems soon will be left with either reduced or no treatment benefits because of state budget cuts, said John Rivers, CEO of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

"These individuals will be reliant on state-supported crisis services with limited funding and many will undoubtedly seek care in hospital emergency departments," he said. "So the new center comes at a critical time and can provide welcome relief to busy hospital emergency departments in the Phoenix area, freeing up beds for acute-care patients."

Patients arriving at hospital emergency departments in psychiatric crisis will be transferred to either the Scottsdale or Phoenix center, based on location and level of crisis.

Pat Little-Upah, CEO of Banner Behavioral Health Hospital, said Banner Psychiatric Center is modeled after a successful center in Dallas.

"We expect to be up to 23 patients very quickly after it opens," she said. "Patients will not stay there longer than 24 hours. They will be stabilized, given medication if needed, and a discharge plan will be developed for them."

Banner Behavioral Health Hospital, part of non-profit Banner Health, provides treatments for adults, teens and children facing mental health and substance-abuse problems.