Ascension Via Christi closes Wichita observation unit for mental health crises

Ascension Via Christi has shut down one of Wichita’s key mental health services for people experiencing an emergency mental health crisis.

Ascension Via Christi-St. Joseph on Friday closed its Psychiatric Observation Unit, where patients brought into the emergency room by law enforcement, family or friends would receive immediate attention and continued observation in a calming environment.

“Ascension Via Christi has for years borne a disproportionate share of the responsibility for meeting the community’s emergency and inpatient behavioral health needs,” Ascension Via Christi said in a statement. “We also have long been a leader in advocating for the needs of this patient population, working with community partners and others across the state to address this critical gap between the care that is needed statewide and what is available.

“However, we are now at the point where we must place a limit on what we can provide without the assistance of the state and others in the community.”

The decision to close the observation unit comes as local leaders work with the state to select a site to open a psychiatric hospital in the state’s largest city. It also comes amid a labor dispute between nurses and Ascension Via Christi’s management and chronic labor shortages within the nursing industry.

“As of today, we are closing the Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph Psychiatric Observation Unit, which is licensed for 12 patients, for an indefinite period,” Ascension Via Christi’s statement says. “We are taking this action because average lengths of stay cannot exceed 24 hours in a short-stay unit like the POU; unfortunately, due to the chronic shortage of inpatient behavioral health beds statewide we can not ensure beds for POU patients within the intended 24-hour window.”

Ascension Via Christi is working to assign the workers from that unit to other behavioral health areas, the statement said.

The Psychiatric Observation Unit was built in 2019 and at the time had staffing to provide care for 16 adult behavioral health patients who need immediate treatment and continued observation in the hospital, according to the hospital’s website. Patients included people who were checked into the emergency room under the influence of drugs or alcohol who needed observation.