Charting a new path for mental health care and crisis response

A new Penn Medicine model brings together emergency, inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care to improve support and reduce barriers to treatment.

Psychological distress from the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic, a rise in gun violence and other uncertainties have created a national mental health landscape blotted by need. Philadelphia, the birthplace of Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Health System , stands on similar ground. Recent studies show an increase in mental health struggles and a surge in drug and alcohol dependence citywide. 

When patients and families are coping with a mental health crisis, navigating a complex health system is, at best, burdensome and, at worst, a deterrent to seeking care. A Penn Medicine initiative is rethinking old models and instead uniting emergency, inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care through a single, comprehensive treatment hub. 

By arranging services together, Penn Medicine can help keep patients safer, get them into treatment faster and better support their families. The strategy also offers an infrastructure model for integrating mental health care both holistically and equitably across large-scale hospital systems.

Hub at HUP Cedar

The community mental health hub will launch in July at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania–Cedar Avenue (HUP Cedar). Inpatient psychiatric and drug and alcohol detoxification units currently located within Penn Presbyterian Medical Center will be moved to HUP Cedar. 

Following this, the facility will open a new, multimillion-dollar crisis response center, equipped to manage 4,000 patient visits annually. The center, licensed as a crisis intervention walk-in facility, will serve as a discreet psychiatric emergency room, providing triage, evaluation, treatment and social services support for acute substance use and serious conditions, such as bipolar disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia.

The co-location of the inpatient psychiatric units with emergency care enables a more integrated experience for patients by eliminating the wait time and additional steps required to transfer patients to units at other facilities.

Better Together 

The HUP Cedar hub will complement Penn Medicine services offered at Pennsylvania Hospital, which provides emergency mental health care, inpatient and outpatient treatment, and crisis response center services. Together, Pennsylvania Hospital and HUP Cedar will have 73 licensed inpatient psychiatric beds and 16 beds for substance-use treatment. 

Staff at both crisis response centers will be connected by a real-time data system providing details on bed availability to ensure patients can be placed as quickly as possible and that each location has the right staffing resources. Penn Presbyterian Medical Center will continue to provide select outpatient psychiatric care, as well as treatment for substance-use disorders after the transition of inpatient services to HUP Cedar.

Commitment to Community

Providing easy access to care when people are in crisis can change—and save—lives. Nationwide, however, more than two-thirds of Americans live in areas without sufficient psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. 

What’s more, a 2022 Pew Research Center survey reported that 41% of Americans, and nearly 60% of young adults, have experienced high levels of psychological distress at least once since the early stages of the pandemic. In Philadelphia, more than 20% of residents are coping with a diagnosed depressive disorder.

With Philadelphia as a backdrop, Penn Medicine has expanded over centuries to include six hospitals, multispecialty centers and outpatient facilities, as well as the Perelman School of Medicine. The HUP Cedar mental health hub, along with Pennsylvania Hospital’s offerings, is a promise to the communities the institution serves and an investment in the city’s future.