How the Emergency Room Expansion Will Improve Healthcare Access
Since the facility was acquired by West Tennessee Healthcare in 2018 after divestment from CHS (which planned to close it), the expansion serves to maintain and strengthen emergency service access for the community. The expansion not only prevents closure but also improves readiness for public health events, which is critical for ensuring that emergency care remains available and safe for all patients in need.
The West Tennessee Healthcare Dyersburg Hospital is designed to make healthcare more accessible, modern, and responsive for Dyer County, and neighboring communities. Here’s how:
- Increasing capacity to treat more patients,
- reducing wait times, and
- enhancing patient flow.
Adding seven additional beds allows the facility to accommodate a greater number of emergency cases, which can reduce overcrowding and delays in care. The inclusion of negative pressure isolation rooms specifically supports preparedness and safer treatment during infectious disease outbreaks, helping to contain infections and protect both patients and healthcare staff.
How the Crisis Stabilization Unit Will Improve Mental Healthcare Access
The Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) on the WTH Dyersburg Hospital campus will increase access to care by providing 16 inpatient beds for behavioral health patients as part of a statewide expansion funded by approximately $35 million through the American Rescue Plan Act.
This CSU offers immediate, short-term, intensive residential treatment aimed at stabilizing individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crises, typically serving as an alternative to emergency rooms and inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations. Here’s how:
- Local availability: increases behavioral health inpatient capcity closer to underserved and rural populations.
- Immediate care: provides 24/7 intensive stabilization in a residential setting, allowing rapid intervention.
- Alternative to ED and hospitalization: offers a less restrictive, community-based option instead of costly and sometimes traumatic emergency room visits or longer hospital stays.
- Integrated crisis system: connected with mobile crisis teams and walk-in centers to facilitate smoot referrals and rapid access.
- Voluntary care and safety: allows voluntary admission of individuals in crisis who do not require inpatient hospitalization but need more support than emergency rooms can provide.
Overall, this CSU represents a critical expansion in West Tennessee’s community-based behavioral health crisis services, increasing equitable, timely access to care.
