Bristol Hospital, which rebranded as Bristol Health earlier this year, recently opened a new 10-bed behavioral unit in its emergency department.
Bristol Health said the $1.2 million, 2,700-square-foot locked unit is meant for patients who arrive at the emergency department (which Bristol Health refers to as its “emergency center”) and are undergoing treatment for mental health or substance abuse conditions.
The unit is meant to free up emergency-center beds and allow medical staff to perform psychiatric evaluations before deciding whether patients should be admitted as hospital inpatients or be discharged.
Work on the unit, which was partially funded by donations, began in March.
The hospital said the new outpatient unit, which follows on the heels of an inpatient behavioral unit for seniors that opened last year, is the first phase of a planned renovation of its emergency center.