St. John’s Hospital opens new behavioral health wing

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St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway has opened a state-of-the-art behavioral health wing in its emergency department. The 2,300-square-foot space includes an evaluation room; a private interview room; an exam room; and 11 curtain divided patient care areas with a combination of beds and recliners that are designed to provide what hospital officials called “a comforting and safe environment of care.”

The new area also has a space that can be used as a quiet room to provide the patient with a calm and relaxing environment where they can self-manage their symptoms.

According to a recent New York State-sponsored Community Health Needs Assessment, access to behavioral health services is a Top 10 need of the Rockaway, Queens communities, officials said. St. John’s also serves the Five Towns and surrounding communities.

The only hospital on the Rockaway Peninsula also instituted several clinically proven processes aimed to reduce behavioral health-related hospitalizations and improve patient outcomes, officials said.

All behavioral health team members at St. John's complete the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Prevention and Management of Crisis Situations program annually, which focuses on how to efficiently de-escalate behavioral health-related crises by using verbal techniques and interventions that are least restrictive.

“We have worked tirelessly to create the ideal environment to treat those who are experiencing emergent behavioral health-related conditions,” Terri Coyle, the hospital’s vice president of behavioral health, stated in a news release. “The new behavioral health wing of the emergency department is symbolic of our commitment to improve the health and well-being of those we serve.”

Behavioral health team members working in the emergency department collaborate with St. John’s outpatient behavioral health team members to ensure that patients have a follow-up visit with a clinician within 48 hours of being discharged from the emergency department to prevent a crisis from reemerging, and to provide an opportunity for sustained and effective outpatient treatment.

The behavioral health wing’s new private interview space also provides an ideal opportunity for a “warm handoff” to occur between outpatient providers and patients prior to discharge. Through a warm handoff, patients build a rapport with an outpatient provider, which can encourage patients to continue seeking necessary behavioral health services in the community from this provider.

St. John’s also connects behavioral health patients with community based organizations that provide services such as care coordination, substance abuse treatment, and crisis respite which, when utilized, can help manage behavioral health conditions and prevent the need for an emergency department visit or hospitalization.