Syracuse, N.Y. — St. Joseph\u2019s Health is renovating and moving its inpatient psychiatric unit, changes that aim to provide patients with more privacy, safer spaces and better access to care. <\/p>\n
The new, two-floor facility will emphasize a \u201ctherapeutic environment,\u201d with natural light, large windows and nature-inspired murals, said Meredith Price, senior vice president of acute operations at St. Joe\u2019s. It will also improve the way staff can monitor patient rooms, she said. <\/p>\n
Most importantly, the changes will allow St. Joe\u2019s to admit more patients experiencing mental health crises for overnight stays. <\/p>\n
Even though the hospital is authorized to treat 30 people at once, Price said, it typically can only accommodate 22 people at a time. That\u2019s because the unit, housed in a building on James Street, has just a handful of single rooms. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are several semi-private rooms, and it does create challenges with assignment of patients and ability to fully utilize the unit,\u201d Price said. <\/p>\n
Going forward, the unit will have far more single rooms. That means St. Joe\u2019s will be able to better use all 30 beds, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it will really create some efficiencies and the ability for us to treat more patients on the unit in a safer way,\u201d Price said. <\/p>\n
St. Joe\u2019s has the only comprehensive psychiatric emergency program in Central New York, Price said. <\/p>\n
Often, the people who are admitted for inpatient care first arrive through the hospital\u2019s psychiatric emergency department, also known as CPEP. They come in need of treatment for conditions such as schizophrenia, depression and bi-polar diagnoses. <\/p>\n
Once stabilized in the emergency room, some are then admitted for inpatient treatment. That includes medication, psychotherapy, group therapy, family therapy and behavior therapy. Those are the patients who\u2019ll be using the renovated space, which will be a few blocks closer to the CPEP than the James Street location is now. <\/p>\n
The $21.5 million project calls for the renovation and expansion of the first and second floors of a building known as the Clare Loeber Smith Center, according to a project plan the hospital submitted to Syracuse. <\/p>\n
Price said the building on Union Avenue between Prospect Avenue and North Townsend Street has been empty for several years. <\/p>\n
The renovation will address overdue upgrades, according to the project plan. That includes updates to the heating and cooling systems, the electrical and plumbing systems, windows and elevators, plus a new entrance on Union Avenue. The building facade will be renovated to mimic the look of other renovated buildings on the hospital campus, the plan states. <\/p>\n
There won\u2019t be new parking, but new sidewalks are part of the plan. <\/p>\n
The new interior layout also will be safer for patients and staff by offering a more centralized way for staff to supervise the area, Price said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe current unit right now is kind of broken up into pieces,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is hard to have visibility of all of the areas and the patients.\u201d <\/p>\n
Price said she expects the additional private rooms will allow the hospital to more frequently accept patients who need to be transferred from other hospitals. <\/p>\n
The hospital secured $16.9 million from the New York State Department of Health in 2018 for the project. Covid-19 stalled the planning process. <\/p>\n
Price said the hospital has no plans for the building on James Street, between Lodi and Catherine streets, that will be empty once the renovation is complete. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are assessing the longevity of the building that behavioral health services were in. So there may be some other changes down the road with that space, but nothing will be going into it at this point,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Price said she expects the renovation to be completed by the end of 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syracuse, N.Y. — St. Joseph\u2019s Health is renovating and moving its inpatient psychiatric unit, changes that aim to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-336685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}