A loud, crowded, chaotic emergency room is among the last places many people would want to be during a mental health crisis. But that’s exactly where many patients are forced to wait, sometimes for hours or even days on end, until an inpatient psychiatric bed opens up.
“An EmPATH is really designed with the healing of the patient in mind,” says Dr. Sharlena Wilson, a psychiatrist and medical director of the EmPATH unit at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in California.
A Better Place to Go During a Mental Health Crisis
Patients are transferred to an EmPATH unit if they need psychiatric care but don’t have other medical issues that would require them to stay in the traditional emergency room. That transfer places them a world away from the hustle and bustle of the ER, with its beeping machines and constant commotion. EmPATH units are designed to be open, airy and quiet, painted in soothing colors and with plenty of natural light. Patients can relax in recliners, talk with other people waiting in the communal area or grab a snack from the kitchen. The open design also makes it easy for providers to monitor patients and see and greet new arrivals right away, Wilson says – although, she adds, there are private spaces available for patients who need them.
It’s not only patients who benefit from this tranquil environment. Providers can also offer better care when they have the time and space to connect with their patients, Wilson says.
“Trying to talk to someone about why they just attempted suicide while there’s people pushing past you with phlebotomy carts,” as might be the case in the general ER, is far from ideal, she says. In the calm atmosphere of the EmPATH unit, “we can really quickly get into pretty deep matters about what’s happening to them and how we can best help them.”
The Business Case for Behavioral Health
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Better care translates to better outcomes for health systems, too. Data from Vituity, a physician-owned healthcare collective that helps health systems implement the EmPATH model, suggests around 75% of patients treated in these centers are stabilized and cleared to go home within 24 hours. The units are associated with an 80% reduction in psychiatric admissions and a 25% reduction in return visits to the ER within 30 days. The result is greater inpatient and emergency room capacity, with a direct impact on the bottom line. One academic medical center in Iowa reported an $861,000 financial boost in its first year using the EmPATH model.