Passavant’s new Partial Hospitalization bridges gap between outpatient and inpatient care

By Gary Scott on October 19, 2018 at 10:24am

Passavant Area Hospital recently expanded its behavioral health services several weeks ago with the opening of their new partial hospitalization program.

With the official opening of this new facility a few weeks ago, Passavant Hospital held an open house yesterday afternoon for certain members of the community to come and tour the new partial hospitalization building on the western most portion of their campus. Partial hospitalization is for adults who require more therapy than most traditional outpatient settings provide, as well as for individuals who have received inpatient care and need structured, intensive therapy after they’ve been discharged from the hospital.

President and CEO of Passavant Area Hospital Harry Schmidt says that the partial hospitalization program provides a nice bridge between that gap of outpatient and inpatient care.

“It nicely fits in the gap between the outpatient services (and inpatient services). Often there is a gap where a patient may not need the inpatient service, so we provide them a little more intense therapy in the outpatient setting, and then likewise, when a patient is ready to be discharged from that inpatient setting, they might need a little more care than you would provide in your traditional outpatient setting. This partial hospitalization program gives you the ability to have a little more hands on therapy to provide those patients a softer landing as they get discharged from the inpatient unit,” says Schmidt.

Dr. Jonathan Colen serves as the medical director for the new partial hospitalization program. He explains specifically the types of patients that are being served at the new facility.

“We serve patients 18 years and older, so adult population, and they’re folks that are struggling in life in one area or another, usually dealing with stressers in their life and how to handle those stressers. It could be due to depression, anxiety or some other disorder that is making it hard for them to deal with those stressers. They learn the coping skills to be able to tackle those stressers and be able to go on with their lives without any difficulty,” Dr. Colen explains.

Dr. Colen says that one of the major benefits of the new program is that patients can return to the facility and provide feedback on their treatment.

“The tools that they learn here, the coping skills, can be taken home and used immediately. If they don’t work, they can come back the next day, tell the therapists, ‘I tried this, it didn’t work,’ and either the therapist can help them practice more or get them a different coping skill,” says Dr. Colen.

Passavant’s new partial hospitalization offers five hours of daily therapy through a structured, goal-oriented setting, with various types of therapy being utilized, such as group psychotherapy and education groups.