Seattle-based UW Medicine will simultaneously close the inpatient psychiatric unit at University of Washington Medical Center and open a new 12-bed voluntary psychiatric inpatient unit at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center.
Here are five things to know about the plans.
1. Both moves are slated for fall 2019.
2. Closure of the 10-bed psychiatric unit at UW Medical Center comes after UW Medicine considered various options for the unit, including closure, due to a variety of factors, including the older space at UW Medical Center's current unit and the cost of meeting CMS' new requirements about ligature risk in such units.
3. Since the unit at UW Medical Center will not meet CMS' new requirements, the new unit at Northwest Hospital "will allow us to serve more patients in a state-of-the-art facility," said Jurgen Unutzer, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Seattle-based University of Washington School of Medicine.
He added: "Patients will also benefit from the therapeutic and support systems at Northwest Hospital's existing 27-bed geriatric psychiatry unit, which will also undergo facility improvements."
4. After the unit closes, psychiatric patients will be evaluated in the emergency department or in a medical or surgical unit of UW Medical Center, according to UW Medicine. Inpatient psychiatric patients will be able to go to Harborview Medical Center or Northwest Hospital, both in Seattle. UW Medicine said some outpatient psychiatric patients may also be referred to outpatient mental health services offered at UW Medical Center, Harborview, Hall Health or the UW neighborhood clinics.
5. The 10-bed psychiatric unit at UW Medical Center typically serves nine voluntary patients per day, and admits on average 430 patients annually, according to hospital officials. A total of 26 employees, including an attending physician, staff the unit. The current inpatient psychiatric unit at Northwest Hospital has 27 geriatric beds.
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