July 18, 2022 – Palomar Health and Kindred Behavioral Health (KBH), a business unit of LifePoint Health, today announced that they have entered into a joint venture partnership to build and operate the new Palomar Behavioral Health Institute.
The Palomar Behavioral Health Institute is projected to cost $100 million and employ more than 200 health care professionals. The three-story, approximately 90,000-square-foot facility will include 120 inpatient beds and provide outpatient services.
Palomar Health has been planning a comprehensive expansion of its Behavioral Health Services, and the construction of a new Behavioral Health Hospital will allow Palomar Health to provide equitable, person-centered services across the continuum, treating the most vulnerable members of the community with dignity and the appropriate level of care. The new hospital’s highly specialized and compassionate environment will foster healing and re-establish patients’ connections to the community, which is critical for long-term recovery.
Palomar Health is currently the only safety net hospital providing inpatient behavioral health services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries in the North San Diego County region, which is home to over 1.1 million people. It provides the following behavioral health services:
- Inpatient Care
- Acute Behavioral Health Unit
- GeroPsychiatric Unit
- Outpatient Therapy Services
- Crisis Stabilization Unit
- Substance Use Disorder Recovery Center (including adolescents and Medi-Cal beneficiaries)
This new joint venture between Palomar Health and Kindred expands on a longstanding, 20-year partnership between the organizations. The behavioral health hospital will be located a short distance from the Escondido campus, where a 52-bed inpatient rehabilitation facility was constructed in partnership with Kindred Rehabilitation Services (KRS), also a business unit of LifePoint. KRS and KBH currently operate more than 30 such joint-venture, specialty hospitals across 18 states.
In addition to the crisis stabilization unit, the behavioral health hospital will serve as the first point of evaluation and care, providing initial emergent evaluations for individuals in the community going through a behavioral health crisis. Patients experiencing mental health emergencies will receive emergent evaluation and intensive stabilization with an immediate assessment to determine the safest treatment plan beyond the initial crisis. The behavioral health hospital will also collaborate with private practice physicians to provide services to members of the community seeking care.
Palomar Health’s team of world-class physicians, nurses, technicians and team members all share the common goal of making the patient experience extraordinary and leading healthcare into the future. For more information on Palomar Health, please visit PalomarHealth.org.