Palomar Health building $100 million facility in Escondido

HEALTHCARE: New Behavioral Health Institute a Joint Venture

Palomar Health is planning to build a $100 million mental health hospital in Escondido.

The 90,000-square-foot Palomar Behavioral Health Institute is a joint venture between Palomar Health and Kindred Behavioral Health, a unit of LifePoint Health.

“We expect to break ground within 12 months and welcome our first behavioral health patients in 2024,” said Cleve Haralson, LifePoint senior vice president of joint venture and strategic services. Palomar will oversee construction of the project and LifePoint will be in charge of providing the institute’s services. “Our job is to manage the day-to-day operations of the Behavioral Health Hospital,” Haralson said.

Palomar and LifePoint previously collaborated on a 52-bed rehabilitation center on the campus of Palomar Medical Center in Escondido that treats people recovering from stroke, brain injuries and other muscular-skeleton problems. “This is just an extension of that 20year partnership of both organizations,” Haralson said.

Serving a Diverse Population

The three-story behavioral health hospital will have 120 inpatient beds, and include an expansion of Palomar’s existing crisis stabilization unit, and also will provide outpatient services.

“Those outpatient services are incredibly important,” said Palomar CEO Diane Hansen.

Even with the new behavioral health hospital, Hansen said there will still be a need for more care. “There just aren’t enough beds, that’s the reality. There’s a need for 500 beds and we’re building 120.”

The Behavioral Health Institute will be near Palomar Medical Center on Citracado Road and off of Interstate 15, but Sheila Brown, Palomar Health chief of special projects, declined to pinpoint the site until the project is submitted to City Council for review.

In addition to the expanded crisis stabilization unit, the Behavioral Health Institute will be the first point of evaluation and care, providing initial evaluation of people with a mental health emergency. It also will providing group counseling and substance abuse treatment. “What we’re trying to do is make sure we have the ability to serve the most diverse population, everything from geriatric patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia to the patient who may have schizophrenia or a very serious illness,” Hansen said. “We’re also working with Rady Children’s Hospital to provide pediatric mental health services as well.”

Calming Design

Brown said that the building will be designed with the special needs of behavioral health patients in mind. That includes anti-ligature doorknobs, ceiling fixtures, and furniture, seamless walls and a calming color scheme. “A patient that’s experiencing dementia, the worst thing you could do is have something that’s bright. I call it stimulus. It’s too much,” Brown said. The typical stay would be from three to five days, similar to what a medical patient would have at Palomar Medical Center, Brown said.

“It’s not long term care,” Brown said. “What’s important is that we don’t send anyone home or out into the environment when they are not stable.”

The outpatient portion of the hospital will likely serve from 10 to 20 patients, three days a week, Brown said.

The building will be locked to prevent patients from wandering off, but the rooms themselves will have a mix of locked and unlocked doors, Brown said, with an emphasis of getting away from what Brown described as “the whole institutional, locked, sterile environment.”

“We want to prevent isolation. There’s nothing more important than having someone else with you, peer support,” Brown said. “We want them to engage. The whole goal is to get them to engage in the community again and let them have an active life again.”

Haralson said that while the institute “is a secure facility, it’s not a lockdown facility. That’s not what we’re going for here. This is a place of healing, a place of safety. It’s designed to be calming.”

Since the emergence of COVID and the stay-at-home order in the early days of the pandemic, mental health concerns have come to the forefront.

“COVID put everything on the front end of review. It’s created an opportunity for everyone to focus on what mental health care needs to look like for patients,” Haralson said. “It’s a less taboo subject.” ■