Hospital will not close behavioral unit until replacement is found

Staff report

SHARON, PA.

Sharon Regional Health System executives say the organization will not discontinue service to its outpatient behavioral health clinic clients until all patients have been referred to an appropriate health care provider.

“We’re communicating with our patients directly and holding constructive discussions with behavioral health providers throughout the area,” said Amy C. Smith, interim SRHS chief executive officer.

This month, SRHS announced plans to discontinue its outpatient behavioral health program as part of a broader staffing adjustment designed to help the hospital run more efficiently and focus on core inpatient services.

Since that time, SRHS has engaged in a dialogue with community, municipal, nonprofit and private behavioral-health providers and advocates with the common goal of ensuring the continued provision of outpatient behavioral-health services for the clinic’s current patients, Smith said.

As a new model for outpatient behavioral health care is developed, SRHS continues to offer many hospital-based behavioral health programs, including: inpatient adult psychiatric care; inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric care; Kitestrings, a partial hospitalization program for children; Pathfinders, a partial hospitalization program for teens; Passages, a partial hospitalization program for adults; wraparound services (comprehensive community-based care for children and teens with mental-health needs or autism); and a psychiatric-care liaison in the hospital’s emergency room to help patients connect with the level of care most appropriate for their condition or diagnosis, officials said.

“Our hospital will continue to play a pivotal role in the delivery of high-quality, inpatient, partial hospitalization or when wraparound services are required,” said Charlotte Chew-Sturm, senior director of Behavioral Health Services for SRHS.