SPOKANE, Wash. — Providence Sacred Heart's inpatient adolescent psychiatry unit is closing its doors.
This comes as workers and members of the Washington Nurses Association held a protest this week against the closure.
The closure of the resource is something that's causing a bit of tension between the union and Providence as far as what's available in the community.
After speaking with the director of Inland Northwest Behavioral Health, he said folks needing to transfer to his clinic instead shouldn't be concerned.
Providence released a statement saying the closure of the unit would not allow them to service eight patients, a change from 22 patients from what they say was a decreased need due to out-patient programs.
Those still needing in-patient care are recommended by Providence to go to local care options such as Inland Northwest Behavioral Health.
"Up to 27 on any given unit," Douglas Holl, director of Inland Northwest Behavioral Health, said. "So, we can swing beds back and forth. So 27 kids in case we have to block rooms for whatever reason."
Holl said the closure is something the mental health clinic can handle.
"I can't speak to nursing because that's outside my realm, but I can tell you, I've got two practitioners," Holl said. "One's a full-time psychiatrist, one's a full-time psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner that I've assigned to that unit, so they can easily handle 25 patients between the two of them."
Staff of Sacred Heart and members of the Washington Nurses Association held a protest against the closure this week, worrying about the patients that will have to make the adjustment.
"They were concerned about where the patients would go," Ruth Schubert, director of marketing and communications at the Washington Nurses Association, said. "Particularly, patients that have other medical conditions."
Schubert said the care offered at Sacred Heart for those patients was unique compared to what other services provide.
"Who are autistic, who have developmental delays, or have ongoing conditions like diabetes that Northwest Behavioral Health can't provide care for," Schubert said.
Holl wants to set the record straight.
"We could take diabetic patients," Holl said. "We can take patients that have all kinds of different medical issues, asthma, et cetera. We have our own internal medical staff that can handle a lot of different medical issues."
Holl isn't worried about taking the patients, saying in his many years at the clinic, the capacity doesn't exceed what they're capable of taking.
"We've got plenty of beds available," Holl said. "We've never, we've never maxed out our capabilities on our adolescent unit."
KREM 2 reached out to the Washington Department of Health on numbers relating to in=patient care for youth parents, but have not heard back.
Holl wants to reiterate again that the clinic can take the amount of patients left by Providence's closure, and hopes those in need reach out for whatever service they need.