Flushing Hospital Medical Center is adding to its array of psychiatric beds with the planned addition of an emergency unit for people in acute mental health crisis. The push complements a multi-year effort to restore longer-term beds that were closed during the pandemic.
The new unit, which will cost the hospital $8.5 million and contain 8 patient beds, will offer immediate short-stay care before a patient is admitted or discharged, according to a recent filing with the state Department of Health. It will comprise six “extended observation beds,” typically used for stays of up to 72 hours, and two triage rooms to be located adjacent to its emergency department, the filing states. It is expected to treat adults over age 18 with pediatric emergencies directed to nearby hospitals.
Known as a comprehensive psychiatric emergency program, the beds are distinct from traditional hospital psychiatric beds, which can admit patients for longer periods of time. They have received growing attention from both city and state officials for their role in stabilizing people in crisis.
The hospital has been reconfiguring the types and number of psychiatric beds it has to offer since 2020, when the pandemic and a fire forced the facility to close its unit and make room for Covid-related services. Since then, Medisys Health Network, the Jamaica-based provider that owns Flushing Hospital and a smattering of other facilities in Queens and Brooklyn, has been aggressively expanding its psychiatric capacity.
The push to bring beds back online after the state allowed hospitals to close more than 1,000 psychiatric beds has been a central component of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s approach to mental health, particularly among homeless New Yorkers. But the effort to restore beds has unfolded unevenly, with some hospitals taking years to expend the capital and achieve the staffing needed to convert or construct new psychiatric units.
In Flushing Hospital’s case, the facility closed its 18-bed program for voluntary psychiatric admissions in December 2020, later developing plans to replace those with 30 beds for extended involuntary holds, not including the new emergency beds, according to a proposal submitted to the state Office of Mental Health and obtained by Crain’s through a freedom of information request. Construction began on the $13.9 million unit in July, according to a record kept by the state Health Department. That project will be paid for by a $15.4 million state grant to develop the beds and expand a chemical-dependency unit, the record shows.
