Five years after opening inside M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital, the EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing) space has quietly become the calmer front door for people in mental health crisis. Instead of bright lights, constant alarms and hallway traffic, patients walk into a living room-style layout with sensory rooms and 24/7 staffing by psychiatric nurses, therapists and psychiatrists. Most people stay roughly 26 to 33 hours, clinicians say, and many are stable enough to head home with outpatient follow-up rather than being admitted to the hospital.
“The EmPATH is designed to be more communal in a living room-like setting,” said Chris Beamish, M Health Fairview’s service line executive for mental health and addiction. EmPATH psychotherapist Madeline Mulcahy told reporters the unit leans on “time, therapy and medications” to help people stabilize. As reported by CBS Minnesota, the Southdale unit has treated more than 10,000 people in crisis over its five years. Inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations tied to emergency department visits have dropped sharply, and fewer than 17% of EmPATH patients end up returning to the ER. Staff members say that shift has eased the crush in the main emergency department and kept inpatient beds free for the sickest cases.
What the research shows
Academic reviews of EmPATH-style units line up with what Southdale is seeing. Studies have found shorter psychiatric boarding times, reduced overall length of stay and fewer inpatient admissions once an EmPATH unit opens. One economic evaluation published on PubMed reported lower boarding times and a positive financial return after a midwestern hospital launched an EmPATH unit. National reporting has tracked hospitals across the country reshaping emergency department space to better handle behavioral health crises, and Bloomberg has noted that more health systems are carving out dedicated observation areas that feel more like living rooms than locked psych wards.
Southdale’s living-room approach
M Health Fairview announced plans for the Southdale EmPATH in March 2021 and has described it as an observation-level unit equipped with reclining chairs, sensory rooms and an observation station that is staffed by mental health specialists. According to the system’s materials and an early press release, a triage process identifies appropriate patients, moves them out of the busy ER and into the EmPATH space for up to a couple of days of stabilization, with an emphasis on de-escalation and smooth handoffs to outpatient care. Designers say the layout is intentional, with a focus on minimizing seclusion and restraint so the environment feels safer and calmer for people who are already in crisis.
Spread around Minnesota, but funding gaps remain
The EmPATH concept has not stayed in Edina. CentraCare operates an EmPATH unit at St. Cloud Hospital, and county planning materials show Mayo Clinic has moved forward with plans for an EmPATH center in Rochester. Information from CentraCare and local documents from Olmsted County indicate that multiple health systems are now adopting the model. Hospital leaders warn, however, that the payment side is still catching up. Private insurers are largely reimbursing for this kind of care, but Medicare and Medicaid have not fully adjusted their rules to support broader rollout, officials told CBS Minnesota. That gap makes it tougher for smaller hospitals and rural facilities to copy what Southdale has done.
For now, the EmPATH unit at Southdale stands as a case study in how design and dedicated staffing can shift outcomes for people in crisis, as well as for the emergency teams trying to care for them. Whether this “living room” approach becomes standard care will depend on funding, the available workforce and ongoing evidence that brief stabilization stays keep people safer and reduce the need for inpatient psychiatric beds.
