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UC San Diego Health and the County of San Diego announced an innovative partnership at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting to expand East Campus Medical Center’s critical behavioral health services to meet urgent mental health needs in and around East San Diego County.
The new behavioral health hub will include 30 inpatient psychiatric beds for adult Medicare patients and a potential Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) at the East Campus Medical Center (formerly Alvarado Hospital), which UC San Diego Health purchased in December 2023. As part of the expansion of its care network, UC San Diego Health will work with the county to plan for the development of a centralized mental health services hub at the location of its newest hospital.
“This partnership is an incredible achievement that will help those in our community who suffer from serious mental health issues,” UC San Diego Health CEO Patty Maysent said, while thanking other members of the County Board of Supervisors, including County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, County Chair Nora Vargas and County Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton. “We are grateful for this partnership with San Diego County and are proud to be part of a local, innovative solution that helps care for patients with complex behavioral health needs.”
The Supervisory Board today unanimously agreed to complete final negotiations for the partnership by October 21st, with the deal to close on October 31st, pending Board approval.
According to San Diego County data, 1 in 20 people in San Diego County currently have a serious mental illness, a rate that rises to 1 in 13 for those living in low-income households. Patients enrolled in Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health program that supports children and adults with limited income and assets, may face additional barriers to behavioral health treatment that reflect socioeconomic disparities, heightening the importance of establishing medical treatment options for this vulnerable population.
UC San Diego Health has been working with San Diego County to develop comprehensive behavioral health solutions for the region since 2018. With the addition of 30 psychiatric inpatient services beds in a dedicated behavioral health patient care tower, East Campus Medical Center will serve as the health system’s new centralized hub for psychiatric services at UC San Diego Health.
Superintendent Montgomery Steppe first introduced the item when the Commission took its first action in May 2024. The County of San Diego and UC San Diego Health Department will work together to determine the feasibility of a CSU at the East Campus Medical Center. CSU services can improve access to critical inpatient care and provide an on-ramp to outpatient services for vulnerable adults experiencing a behavioral health crisis. These services have been shown to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations by diverting patients from emergency departments and inpatient care, stabilizing them, and connecting them to community-based behavioral health services they can rely on for ongoing care.
Expanded behavioral health services at East Campus Medical Center are expected to be fully operational in 2026, if approvals and funding remain on schedule. UC San Diego Health will continue to operate emergency psychiatric services at both the Hillcrest and La Jolla Medical Center campuses after the new hub is complete, and the county will continue to operate emergency psychiatric services and inpatient units at San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital.
“This enhanced behavioral health services model is a powerful response to the region’s acute psychiatric bed shortage and will free up capacity in other medical units to help meet growing emergency demand,” said Jeff Daskalakis, MD, chair of the psychiatry department at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a psychiatrist at UC San Diego Health. “It also enhances the continuum of care for our most vulnerable community members.”
