Jefferson Abington Hospital has closed its inpatient behavioral health unit and will use the 23 beds to accommodate extra patients in its emergency department, the health system said this week.
Abington will continue to provide crisis services to stabilize patients who are experiencing a mental health emergency when they arrive at the hospital, and provide psychiatric evaluations needed to transfer them to specialized facilities. The hospital will also continue to provide outpatient behavioral health services.
The shift “will better serve our emergency department patients both with and without behavioral health needs,” a Jefferson spokesperson said in a statement.
A spokesperson confirmed the change on Tuesday but declined to say when it had transitioned the 23 behavioral health beds into an emergency department “surge unit” or whether any staff members were laid off.
Jefferson Health announced in October that it had laid off between 600 and 700 of its 65,000 employees. The system reported an operating loss of $104 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended in September, driven largely by its struggling insurance business.
A spokesperson also declined to say whether the hospital had plans to reopen the psychiatric unit in the future, or whether the change was part of ongoing restructuring across the sprawling 32-hospital system. Jefferson leaders have said they plan to streamline services across the Jefferson network, which has grown significantly through acquisitions since 2015.
» READ MORE: Jefferson is laying off about 1%, or roughly 600 to 700, of its employees this week
The hospital’s inpatient psychiatric unit treated 350 patients in 2024, according to the most recent data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Patients experiencing severe mental and behavioral health emergencies often need to be admitted to a specialized psychiatric hospital. General hospitals like Abington are critical entry points, helping to stabilize these patients and providing psychiatric evaluations, said Carla Sofronski, executive director of the PA Harm Reduction Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for people with mental and behavioral health needs.
Patients must be evaluated by a psychiatrist or psychologist before being transferred to a specialized facility.
Sofronski said she worries that being in the emergency department could become even more stressful and scary for patients in a mental health crisis, if they do not have dedicated rooms to decompress.
“It’s a very busy emergency department — what does that experience look like for people who are suffering?” she said.
Last year, an Abington security guard was accused by the Pennsylvania Department of Health of using excessive force against a patient being treated in the hospital’s psychiatric unit. Video footage of the hallway encounter obtained by The Inquirer showed the guard bringing the patient — who was naked beneath a hospital bed blanket wrapped around her body — to the floor after she ignored his orders to stop walking.
Jefferson has said the guard followed protocol.
Jefferson declined to say where it planned to transfer patients.
Other options nearby for patients in need of these services include Holy Redeemer Hospital’s 24 inpatient psychiatric beds, according to health department data from 2024, the most recent year available.
Elsewhere in the Jefferson network, Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia has 37 inpatient psychiatric beds and the system’s flagship hospital has 16.