EmPATH Units

Emergency Psychiatry Assessment, Treatment, and Healing (EmPATH) units are hospital-based “ICU” level care for patients having a behavioral health crisis. EmPATH was developed by emergency psychiatrist, Dr. Scott Zeller, and is shared in large part by Vituity, a physician-owned organization leading care delivery innovations that improve patient outcomes.

Recognizing the need in South Carolina, the South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services (SCDHHS) awarded 13 SC hospitals funds to build or renovate EmPATH or EmPATH-like units adjacent or near hospital emergency departments (ED). As progress on EmPATH development continues across the state, SCHA is facilitating a learning collaborative that shares best practices and leads tours across the states in existing hospital EmPATH units, as well as those in development.  In addition to a learning collaborative, SCHA created an EmPATH Advisory Council and EmPATH Finance Committee comprised of SC hospitals to address topics such as reimbursement and the need for standards and metrics for measurement.

EmPATH units are designed to make the health care experience more soothing and comfortable for a patient in behavioral health crisis. EmPATH units are not considered crisis stabilization units but, instead, they serve as an extension of the hospital ED where patients are first medically stable then discharged from the ED and admitted to EmPATH for treatment.  “One in seven people goes to a hospital emergency department during a psychiatric crisis. We have seen media stories about psychiatric patients in the emergency department waiting for a transfer to an inpatient bed. This is how EmPATH units came about. The Vituity team created a new model of care and made it scalable to work in small, large, urban, and rural hospitals. EmPATH units allow more bed availability in emergency departments for non-psychiatric patients, while getting psychiatric patients into a comfortable environment, stabilized, and on a treatment plan.”

EmPATH units are calming environments that permit patients to reside in an open central area under gentle observation by a nurse who has direct line of sight to all patients with a level of autonomy in the unit. They may sit in a recliner, watch television, have a snack/beverage, play games, nap, or walk around.

The first EmPATH unit opened in San Diego in 2016, and several dozen are currently operating across the United States, as well as in other countries. According to a 2022 study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, the EmPATH units in the study produced the following notable results:

• Reduced ED length of stay from 16.2 hours to 4.9 hours;
• Reduced inpatient psychiatric admissions by 53%;
• Improved outpatient follow-up of patients from 39.4% to 63.2%;
• Reduced 30-day psychiatric patient return to the ED by 25%;
• Added $861,000 to the ED bottom line in the first year of operation by moving behavioral health patients out of the ED to more targeted, timely, and better care (faster room turnover, fewer unnecessary diagnostic tests, fewer sitter hours); and
• Reduced inpatient length of stay for patients admitted from EmPATH units.

For more information, contact Melanie Matney (mmatney@scha.org) or Diana Zona (dzona@scha.org).