Poway to get Palomar Health behavioral health unit

Palomar Health is on track to move its behavioral health unit from Escondido to the Pomerado Hospital campus in Poway by year’s end, officials said.

The 20-beds (a mix of behavioral health and a new inpatient older adult program) will complement the 12-bed gero-psychiatric unit that has existed at Pomerado for several years to treat older patients with acute psychiatric disorders, age-related difficulties and possible memory impairments.

Spokesman Chris Saunders said the adult behavioral health unit is moving to Villa Pomerado — adjacent to Pomerado Hospital — by late 2016. The unit treats those with mental illness, which Saunders said includes “any individual in any part of society,” such as college students, professionals and senior citizens. Their illnesses include depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other conditions that require in-patient treatment.

He said a small percentage of its behavioral health unit and gero unit patients are homeless.

“Our policy is not to release them back to the streets without a place to go,” he said. “If they don’t have family members they can live with, we will find them a nursing home, long-term care facility, crisis house, board and care, independent living, shelter or other appropriate facility. We won’t discharge them until we have found such a living situation.”

He added that adding more beds in Poway “will not have any further impact on the surrounding areas than there has been for many years. The ... unit has done very well in providing a safe environment for patients, caregivers and the community.”

The move is another component of the public hospital’s plan to consolidate its services and close its Palomar Health Downtown Campus in Escondido. Preceding the closure announcement in June 2015, Palomar Health held several meetings — including two community gatherings in Poway — to inform locals of its plan and to address their concerns.

Officials said the public health district was losing $20 million a year by keeping the downtown campus about three miles from Palomar’s new state-of-the-art hospital that opened in 2012.

In addition, more than $172 million in infrastructure and information technological upgrades are needed over the next several years at the campus that was the original Palomar Medical Center. Money saved through the closure is to go toward reinvesting in patient care throughout the system, officials stated last year. In all, the closure could mean a savings of $272.4 million over five years.

Regarding other downtown campus services still operating, officials said its birth center/neonatal intensive care unit will likely move to Palomar Medical Center by this fall and the acute rehabilitation unit will relocate there by year’s end, where it will be based until a much larger facility is ready by fall 2019.

Last month, Palomar Health announced it reached an agreement to build a 52-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital through a joint venture with Kindred Healthcare, Inc. The third-party developer will construct the facility on the Palomar Medical Center campus and lease it to the joint venture managed by Kindred so Palomar Health will not need to make any capital expenditures.

Kindred Healthcare already manages Palomar’s inpatient rehabilitation unit at its downtown campus in addition to other services throughout the San Diego region.

“This new hospital will provide inpatient rehabilitation services that complement Palomar’s highly regarded acute care services and help patients recover and return home,” said Benjamin Breier, Kindred’s president and CEO.

“The transition of Palomar Health Downtown Campus-based programs and services has been going very smoothly as we move closer to the relocation of our cornerstone inpatient care units of the (campus) by the end of calendar year 2016,” said Frank Beirne, Palomar Health’s executive vice president of operations.

“The relocation of the (remaining) core inpatient services ... is dependent on Palomar Health receiving final regulatory approvals, so we don’t yet have an exact timetable on these moves.

“It’s important to remember ... that there will be no interruption or degradation of services during this transition,” Beirne said. “Our goal and commitment remain unwavering that Palomar Health and our care team will do whatever it takes to ensure that the patient comes first when it comes to providing healthcare services to the communities we serve until our last patient leaves the (downtown) campus.”

Also set for future moves are the infusion center (moving to Pomerado Outpatient Pavilion), medical records (moving to 2227 Enterprise Street in Escondido), perinatal testing (moving to 488 E. Valley Parkway in Escondido) and radiation therapy (moving to Palomar Medical Center). Details on the laboratory draw station are yet to be determined.

As for other departments:

• Outpatient surgery was split among Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital.

• Pre-admission testing moved in January from Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital to the Pomerado Outpatient Pavilion in Poway.

• The downtown campus’ standby emergency department closed in March. Non-emergent ambulatory services are provided through a partnership with downtown Escondido area community health centers.

• Cardiac rehabilitation, outpatient rehabilitation, patient financial services and sleep lab have moved to Palomar Health’s San Marcos facility at 120 Craven Road.

• Home health has moved to 800 W. Valley Parkway in Escondido.

• Medical staff services moved to Palomar Medical Center.