A San Diego healthcare organization recently announced it is joining with a company based in Tennessee to build a new, 120-bed behavioral health facility in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista.
The stand-alone hospital will replace the current psychiatric unit located in Hillcrest, which has only 36 beds. The new construction is due in part to the fact that Scripps has to rebuild its Mercy Hospital to meet the state's seismic laws, which require that the medical center be replaced or repaired by 2030. The hospital's plans call for it to build a replacement for Mercy to the south of the current ER and trauma department, but that means razing the existing psychiatric unit.
Chris Van Gorder, the CEO of Scripps, said there simply wasn't room to build a new unit on the Hillcrest campus, or downtown, which would have been Scripps' preference. Once San Diego gives its approval, Acadia will build a hospital that is state of the art, including a unit that can be secured when patients are put on involuntary holds. Managers of facilities like this can use brochure printing to create pamphlets that describe the services provided at the site.
Psychiatric cases deemed to be emergencies would be taken to Scripps' hospitals main emergency rooms by law enforcement officers. If additional treatment is required, they will then be taken to the new Chula Vista facility, which should open in 2023.