Community Joins Forces to Keep Behavioral Health Unit Open at Bay Area Hospital

June 14, 2022

Community Joins Forces to Keep Behavioral Health Unit Open at Bay Area Hospital

Coos Bay, OR, June 14, 2022 – Bay Area Hospital is pleased to announce that the Behavioral Health Unit will remain open. After the announcement of the impending unit closure three weeks ago, there has been an outpouring of public support for maintaining this type of care in our community. This past week local health care partners, law enforcement, city and county officials, and hospital leaders met to discuss the current situation and the interdependency of behavioral health programs and services. Late last week Advanced Health, which provides coordinated care for Medicaid participants in the Oregon Health Plan in Coos and Curry counties, committed funding to the program. Advanced Health is a local consortium of healthcare providers in the region that represents physician clinics, hospitals, county providers, substance abuse, and dental services.

The support will cover funding shortfalls over the next year. During the next year, Bay Area Hospital will look forward to partnering more deeply with community organizations to strengthen behavioral health care in the region and to working with state representatives to help provide solutions to improve the behavioral health care system at that level. This work will be focused on building a sustainable program after the support funding expires.

We again want to recognize the generous support from Advanced Health to keep this service available to our community. We realize that these past two years have been very challenging for many people and know that there continues to be a bright future ahead.

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Bay Area Hospital improves the health of our community every day and offers a comprehensive range of diagnostic and therapeutic services spanning medical, surgical, pediatric, critical care, behavioral health, home health, cancer care, cardiology, obstetrical, and other specialties.