Long Island Jewish Valley Stream to close psychiatric unit

Northwell Health announced on May 19 that it would close the psychiatric unit of Long Island Jewish at Valley Stream on June 3. The unit, which includes 27 staff members, treats suicidal patients and those with behavioral health issues.

A 45-year-old employee of the unit, who declined to be identified so that she can seek another job in the Northwell Health system, said that the unit recently won the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award, and that all of the patients surveyed have said they would recommend the unit to other patients.

“What you would do for your mother, we’d do for anyone who came through that door,” she said.

The employee said that ancillary staff members that are in the 11-99 union, were able to renegotiate with the human resources department to get new jobs at Northwell. Since she is not an ancillary staff member, however, she has to seek employment on her own by re-applying.

“The health system has not been very helpful,” she said, “so we’re all scrambling to get jobs.”

According to Dr. Blaine Greenwald, vice chairman of the combined department of psychiatry, the decision to close the unit was the result of a declining need for in-patient treatment.

“As in-patient utilization is down, it’s illogical to have empty beds and maintain in-patient units,” Greenwald said.

At Valley Stream, there are only 21 beds for psychiatric patients, according to Steve Bello, executive director of LIJ. Of these, he said, the hospital generally has three or four empty beds.

Patients with psychiatric emergencies will still be seen at Valley Stream, but if they need in-patient services, Northwell’s ambulances would bring them to Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens. Zucker Hillside has specialty in-patient psychiatric units, including a geriatric psychiatry unit, a child and adolescent psychiatry unit, a women’s psychiatry unit and a young adult unit. It also has behavioral health teams that can mobilize for psychiatric emergencies, and offers 234 psychiatric beds.

“The big facilities have more resources,” Greenwald said. “Despite providing meaningful care, small, so-called standalone psychiatric units … are not able to match the elements that exist in a large, flagship psychiatric facility like Zucker Hillside Hospital.”

The Valley Stream employee, however, was concerned about Zucker Hillside’s ability to provide the same quality of care. At LIJ, she said, psychiatric patients can also be treated for medical emergencies, but Zucker Hillside only has a psychiatric wing. So, if there were a medical emergency, the patient would be transferred back to LIJ.

“It was really a great support for us, because if you had a diabetic patient, they could go see an endocrinologist and come back to us,” she said, adding that some patients have expressed that they would not go to a hospital that does not have a psychiatric unit.

Bello said there is no word yet on how LIJ will use the extra space. “There’s a bunch of options, but we haven’t made a decision yet,” said Steve Bello, who declined to say what the options were.