Wenatchee, Wash.-based Confluence Health will close a medical unit designed to accommodate patients with behavioral health needs in March.
In a statement shared with Becker's, a spokesperson said the unit, medical unit 1 at Confluence Health Hospital in Wenatchee, was not a licensed psychiatric unit, but was designed to accommodate patients in the hospital for medical needs who also had psychiatric diseases or behavioral concerns.
The unit opened in 2014. The spokesperson said Parkside Wentachee, an American Behavioral Health Systems-owned facility, opened in 2018 and began taking patients from Confluence's facilities once they were medically stable, reducing the number of patients on the unit.
"It was determined that any sort of special needs for the remaining patients seen by this unit could be met in standard nursing care units and the previous level of care would be able to be maintained," the spokesperson said.
The unit currently has 11 full-time registered nurses, who will be transferred to other units and areas in Confluence Health when the unit closes in March.
Confluence Health is also embedding a new social work team in emergency departments at two of its hospital campuses.
"[The team] will focus on providing guidance and help in securing the appropriate care and services for those requiring psychiatric or behavioral healthcare, connecting them with either Confluence Health service lines or other community organizations, such as Parkside, as appropriate for their needed care," the spokesperson said.