Cranberry’s UPMC Passavant debuts rapid-response room for behavioral health patients
CRANBERRY TWP — In response to a growing mental health crisis in Butler County, officials at UPMC Passavant’s Cranberry campus have launched at least one practical solution.
Following approval from the U.S. Department of Health in late March, the facility opened a state-of-the-art behavioral health room in its emergency department that offers a safer, faster and more adaptable space for patients in need.
“We have the ability to be safer with patients, which ultimately, that’s our goal,” said Betsy Tedesco, clinical director of the Cranberry campus. “The staff actually has a means of protecting themselves now in case a (patient’s condition) gets escalated, and the room is safer for the patient because they have what they need in the way that they need it.”
Following the results of an annual UPMC Community health needs assessment, Tedesco said the staff learned that the area had a high population of behavioral health needs.
She also noted the hospital is one of only a handful in Western Pennsylvania with a dedicated mental health emergency department.
“We try to get it down to the granular data as far as ages and the types of medical needs,” Tedesco said. “So we’ve been able to implement a lot of different projects here at Cranberry to help our community as a whole.”
The new room, which was developed by the hospital’s maintenance crew, contains several innovative safety components, including a concession-stand-style garage door that can be lowered to cover all items, eliminating the need to remove equipment manually and allowing the room to be transformed into a safe environment in less than a minute.
“It kind of eliminates all that risk,” Tedesco said, adding that the hospital consulted with Pittsburgh’s UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital to design the room. “It’s literally a couple steps and we’re good to go.”
Similarly, the walls and ceilings are tamper-proof to prevent any potential damage and the room’s entry includes a door that features a specially designed handle to prevent anything from being hung on it.
A television is securely fastened, with only the remote and speaker accessible, giving patients an entertainment outlet during their stay.
Tedesco said that the room that the Cranberry Campus now utilizes on a daily basis is set to be replicated across all UPMC hospitals in the coming years.
“That’s going to take some time,” she said. “But I’m excited to see that what we have here is state-of-the-art and is going to be the example.”
