Behavioral Health and Crisis Hospital
A hospital where every door, fixture and ceiling tile was chosen for patient safety, and a crisis center that took its first walk-in at midnight on day one.
- Owner
- Confidential
- Location
- U.S.
- Market
- Healthcare
- Delivery
- CM at-risk
- Scale
- 144 beds
- Completed
- 2024
A 144-bed behavioral health hospital with a 24-hour crisis center, built ligature-resistant down to the last hinge and staffed for patients the day it opened.
Behavioral health buildings fail in the details. A standard door hinge, a sprinkler head or a towel hook can become a ligature point, and every one of thousands of components had to be ligature-resistant, tamper-proof and still serviceable by maintenance staff. The owner needed the 24-hour crisis center open on a fixed date to relieve crowded emergency rooms across the region, and clinical staff had to train in the finished building before the first patient arrived.
The approach.
- 01
A mockup clinicians signed
Full patient room, seclusion room and nurse station mockups were built early and walked by nurses, psychiatrists and security staff until every detail was approved.
- 02
A ligature register for every room
Each fixture, door, frame and device was tracked in a room-by-room register, checked at install and checked again at punch.
- 03
Systems tested the way staff use them
Doors, duress alarms, nurse call and access control were proven in staff drills that simulated real events, not just switch checks.
- 04
Staff in the building early
Clinical teams ran training shifts in finished units three weeks before opening, and their punch items were closed before the crisis center opened.
The outcome.
“In this building a towel hook is a safety device. We treated every one of them like it could save a life, because it can.”
Project manager, PerryWester
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