Palomar Health announced on April 4 that it intends to close its only remaining inpatient behavioral health unit on June 30. The move is intended to “enable the health system to focus resources” on building a new 120-bed mental health hospital on campus, it said. of Palomar Medical Center Escondido.
Palomar is located in Serra Mesa, approximately 28 miles by car southwest of Palomar Medical Center Poway, to meet the daily needs of patients in interior North County who seek mental health treatment in a locked psychiatric unit. announced that it has brokered a contract with Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital. There are currently 12 bed units in operation.
Sharp Healthcare confirmed the deal in a short statement, saying its Mesa Vista facility, located on the flagship Sharp Memorial Hospital campus, has the capacity to handle Palomar's anticipated increase in referrals. The ministry said the influx of patients is “expected to range from six to nine per day.”
Combined with Tri-City Medical Center's closure of 16 mental health inpatient beds in 2018, this move represents a short-term blow to the availability of acute mental health services in North County. A new 16-bed, one-story psychiatric hospital on the Tri-Cities campus will break ground in October 2022, and officials said they believe the project will open in 2023. , the project is still under construction.
Tri-City CEO Dr. Jean Marr said early Thursday evening that construction is expected to be completed in July and the new facility will likely open in the fall.
Luke Bergman, the county's director of behavioral health services, said Thursday how he expects Palomar's announced closure of its mental health unit to affect the entire care network for people in urgent need of hospital treatment. He did not respond to a question about whether he was doing so.
Palomar saw an immediate increase in demand for mental health care after Oceanside's Tri-City closure, particularly in the Escondido emergency department, but with the sale of the original Palomar Medical Center in downtown Escondido, Palomar's own services It has been gradually shrinking. Even after most hospital operations were moved across town to the new Palomar Medical Center Escondido on Citricado Parkway, the old building continued to house and operate Palomar's 22-bed psychiatric ward. .
That resource was closed when the old complex was sold in 2020, and Palomar converted the existing geriatric psychiatry unit at Poway Hospital into its current 12-bed general psychiatry unit.
Palomar said it intends to build a modern, 120-bed mental health facility on its Escondido campus. In 2022, he estimated that the building could be operational by 2024, but that turned out to be optimistic. Palomar said in a statement Thursday that the facility has not yet broken ground but is “on track” to reach that milestone in May.
Palomar also has other mental health facilities. In 2020, the health system opened a Crisis Stabilization Center at Palomar Medical Center that can treat up to 16 patients at a time. However, that resource does not serve the same purpose as a locked inpatient unit. Patients can stay for up to 24 hours, but in recliners rather than beds.
While it's clear that residents of interior North County who need hospital-quality mental health care will have to travel further to receive it, Palomar's statement Thursday said the change is a positive one. It is being touted as such.
“Palomar Health will continue to provide physician services to support the Crisis Stabilization Unit while working with Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital to maintain adequate inpatient and outpatient care,” Palomar's statement said. “By combining their resources and expertise until the new behavioral building is completed, Palomar Health and Sharp's Mesa Vista Hospital will provide unparalleled behavioral health care services to the San Diego community.”
The statement did not specify how closing Palomar's 12-bed unit in Poway would allow resources to be focused on building a new mental health hospital in Escondido.
