MetroHealth Opens Psychiatric Emergency Department at Cleveland Heights Medical Center

The MetroHealth System announced the opening of its new psychiatric emergency department at the Cleveland Heights Medical Center on Wednesday. Coming after the closure of St. Vincent’s psychiatric care center in the summer, the facility seeks to fill a void in care by providing round-the-clock, on-site psychiatric emergency services to meet the community’s need for crisis behavioral healthcare.

The new department will be staffed by MetroHealth psychiatrists and behavioral-health trained nurses, nursing assistants and social workers who can provide crisis care to patients experiencing psychiatric emergencies– providing a focus on the future development of the hospital’s services, according to Jane Granzier, the Director of Crisis Management Services at MetroHealth.

“To really run a good psychiatric emergency department, you need the full support of a hospital system where you can get lab work done quickly, like your analysis, [to] complete blood draw results, because those are part of the evaluation,” Granzier told Scene.

The location for the PED will allow smoother transfer for patients in different departments to receive inpatient behavioral healthcare. Patients with needs for medical care can be transferred to the hospital’s psychiatric-medical unit.

“We can’t erase the systemic trauma they’ve experienced,” Granzier said in a release. “But what we can do is be a seed of hope to show them that behavioral healthcare can be delivered in a way that’s positive and lifegiving and nonjudgmental.”

The space will have a capacity of 13 patients, and will meet Joint Commission guidelines – standards used to assess how healthcare organizations can improve their performance – for patients experiencing mental health and/or substance-related crises. The department will be open to all patients regardless of location and financial status.

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