Teaching hospital Lexington Medical Center (West Columbia, S.C.) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (Columbia, S.C.) opened a new EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing) unit, in West Columbia, according to the website coladaily.com.
The project is one of 13 hospitals across South Carolina that have received grant money for the development of such units, which are designed to serve emergency department patients experiencing mental health crises by providing a separate environment tailored to patients’ behavioral health needs, according to the article.
The EmPATH model includes physical spaces that help staff monitor patients in an open milieu and are staff by a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, nurses, and social workers.
For more on Lexington Medical Center, go here.
