Hospitals and health systems are rethinking how and where they deliver behavioral healthcare. From emergency department alternatives to school partnerships and integrated specialty care, system leaders are focused on earlier interventions and more therapeutic environments for patients of all ages. [Becker's Behavioral Health]
- EmPATH units
Leaders have turned to emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment and healing, or EmPATH, units, to triage behavioral health patients away from chaotic emergency departments and into more therapeutic spaces.
Several health systems in the U.S. are investing in these units to combat overflowing emergency departments where wait times can reach hours, or even days, in some cases.
The need for such units had long been recognized, as around 70% to 80% of patients who would require inpatient hospitalization at an emergency department are able to be stabilized and discharged after 24 hours, Scott Zeller, MD, former head of psychiatric emergency services at Oakland, Calif.-based Alameda Health System, told Becker’s in 2012.
Lately, however, system leaders seem to believe the time for EmPATH units has come. In November 2024, Inova Fairfax (Va.) Hospital opened an EmPATH unit, and in March 2025, Charleston, S.C.-based MUSC Health said it had opened the nation’s first pediatric EmPATH unit.
2. School-based services ...
3. Behavioral Health in Specialties...
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