Organizational Professionalism: Unity Center for Behavioral Health
The following activity embodies the principles of the Organizational Professionalism Charter.
As a compassionate community, how can we provide care and treatment for behavioral health patients in the most humane, patient-centered way without draining the resources of our area medical ED’s?
For far too long, behavioral health patients have ended up cycling through emergency departments ––waiting extended periods of time before being admitted to the hospital for treatment. Furthermore, patients experiencing a behavioral crisis many times end up in jail.
The Unity Center is a 110,000-square foot, 24-hour behavioral health services center that features the first emergency room in Oregon and Southwest Washington explicitly designed to deliver immediate psychiatric care and a path to recovery for people experiencing a mental health crisis.
The center was created with the goal of reducing the “boarding time” of behavioral health patients in hospital emergency departments. The wait for behavioral health patients in crisis used to average between 40-60 hours for some of the busiest area emergency rooms. The average wait time for a bed at Unity is now eight hours. This significant reduction in boarding time also benefits local area ED’s. Since opening a year ago, Unity has treated nearly 5,000 patients in the Psychiatric Emergency Service and discharged 1,700 patients from an inpatient unit.
Partnering with dozens of community-based organizations helps us connect our patients with social services and follow-up care, so they continue to receive the support they need after leaving Unity Center.
Organizational Professionalism Commitment:
Community Partnerships: Commitment to Partner with Communities
In 2014, four health systems in Portland, Oregon, came together to solve one of the most challenging issues impacting health care today. An innovative, community-focused approach to psychiatric crisis care, the Unity Center for Behavioral Health is a collaboration between local health systems: Adventist Health, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health and Oregon Health & Science University. The four health systems have a total of 10 hospitals that now have access to a higher level of specialized mental health care for patients experiencing a behavioral health crisis. With a combination of emergency, inpatient and community-based outpatient services, Unity Center provides comprehensive psychiatric emergency care with 85 adult inpatient beds and 22 inpatient beds for adolescents ages nine through 17. The Unity Center is a revolutionary model for providing crisis mental health services because it spreads the cost and leverages the investment, the expertise and the range of the human, technological and systemic resources of the major stakeholders to meet a pressing need in the community. The collaboration between the four health system partners ultimately benefits human health and well-being, lowering costs in health care, law enforcement, and the justice system.