Palomar Health to close 12-bed behavioral health unit in June

Palomar Health announced Thursday that it intends to close its lone remaining inpatient behavioral health unit on June 30. It said the move is intended to "allow the health system to focus resources" on building a new 120-bed mental health hospital on the campus of Palomar Medical Center Escondido.

To handle its daily need of inland North County patients for mental health treatment in locked psychiatric units, Palomar said it has brokered a deal with Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital in Serra Mesa, a roughly 18-mile drive south and west of Palomar Medical Center Poway where the 12-bed unit now operates.

In a short statement sent Thursday afternoon, Sharp HealthCare confirmed the arrangement, saying that its Mesa Vista facility on the campus of its flagship Sharp Memorial Hospital has the capacity to handle Palomar's anticipated referral increase. It said the influx "is expected to range from six to nine patients a day."

Taken together with Tri-City Medical Center's closure of its 16 inpatient mental health beds in 2018, the move is a short-term blow to acute mental health services availability in North County. A new 16-bed single-story mental health hospital on the Tri-City campus broke ground in October of 2022, with officials indicating they thought the project would open in 2023, but the project remains under construction.

Dr. Gene Ma, Tri-City's chief executive officer, said early Thursday evening that construction is expected to be complete in July with the new facility likely to open in the fall.

Luke Bergmann, director of behavioral health services for the county, did not respond Thursday when asked what effect he anticipates Palomar's announced mental health unit closure will have on the overall network of care for those with acute needs for hospital-based treatment.

Palomar saw an immediate increase in demand for mental health care, especially in its Escondido emergency department, after the Tri-City closure in Oceanside but has itself gradually decreased services with the sale of the original Palomar Medical Center in downtown Escondido. 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 unit.

That resource closed when the old complex sold in 2020, and Palomar converted an existing geriatric psychiatric unit at its Poway hospital into the current 12-bed general psychiatric unit.

Palomar has said that it intends to build a 120-bed modern mental health facility on its Escondido campus. In 2022 it estimated the building could be up and running by 2024. That proved optimistic. Palomar's statement Thursday said the facility has not yet broken ground but is "slated" to reach that milestone in May.

Palomar has other mental health care facilities. In 2020, the health system opened a crisis stabilization center at Palomar Medical Center with a simultaneous treatment capacity of up to 16 patients. That resource, though, does not serve the same purpose as a locked inpatient unit. Patients can stay for up to 24 hours but are housed on recliners rather than beds.

Though it is clear that inland North County residents who require hospital-level mental health care will have to travel farther to get it, Palomar's statement Thursday pitched the change as a positive.

"Palomar Health will continue to provide physician services to support the Crisis Stabilization Unit while working with Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital to maintain the appropriate inpatient and outpatient care," Palomar's statement said. "By combining resources and expertise until the new behavioral building is completed, Palomar Health and Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital are set to deliver unparalleled behavioral healthcare services to the San Diego community."

The statement did not specify how closing Palomar's 12-bed unit in Poway would allow it to focus resources on building the new mental health hospital in Escondido.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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