Penn Highlands recovery unit to serve Washington, Fayette and surrounding counties
Paul Paterra
Paul Paterra
Kelly Macheska, substance recovery unit director, shows off a group therapy room at Penn Highlands Mon Valley.
Paul Paterra
Paul Paterra
Penn Highlands Mon Valley’s CNX Foundation Substance Recovery Unit has 14 inpatient rooms.
When the CNX Foundation Substance Recovery Unit opens at Penn Highlands Mon Valley in the fall, it will become the first inpatient facility of its kind to help those in Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties who are struggling with addiction.
As a Level 4 treatment facility, it offers help to patients who require more specialized care with the support of a full acute-care hospital.
“We have identified a need from our community partners and our resources that there was a lack of care for the patient population that we’re going to be serving, so that’s why we created this unit,” said Kelly Macheska, substance recovery unit director, during a Thursday tour.
Because the unit will provide an enhanced level of care for patients whose biomedical, emotional, behavioral, or cognitive problems are so severe that they require inpatient treatment, “We’ll be able to treat the addiction side, as well as the medical components,” Macheska said.
The unit at the Monongahela-based hospital was funded through federal and state grants, and a $1 million commitment from CNX Foundation.
“Every person basically has a loved one, family friends, a neighbor that has been touched by addiction at some level,” Macheska said. “We sit in a very unique area. We’re in Washington County, we have Allegheny across the river, we have Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene. We get a lot of patients from the surrounding communities.”
Dr. Gopi Vadlamudi, substance recovery unit medical director, said there are three pillars of treatment – clinical care, psychosocial counseling and recovery support.
“What we realized is we have sick patients who start getting better medically, but then they start going into withdrawal and they need appropriate facilities for their recovery, and we don’t have many in the community,” he explained. “Unless you have all of those three, the chances of someone going into the recovery process goes down.”
Physicians, nursing staff, and therapists will be available 24 hours a day, as well as access to the emergency room, cardiac care unit, behavioral health and other medical services provided at the hospital.
The 14 private inpatient rooms include two with Americans with Disabilities Act access, two isolation rooms, and seven rooms that are geared toward those who may be at risk of self-harm. Macheska said the hope is to expand to add more rooms in the future.
“We expect that we will be busy,” Vadlamudi added.
Other features include private consultation rooms, group therapy rooms, an activity dining room, a quiet activity room and a family interaction room with video conferencing access.
Macheska said the hospital is in the process of putting together its staff for the recovery unit.
“Our goal has always been to provide the people of this region with the highest quality health care so they do not have to travel far when they need care,” said Peter J. Adamo, regional market president of Penn Highland Healthcare’s southwest region. “This new unit will provide treatment and rehabilitation for people through the first stage of substance withdrawal to help transition them to the next phase of their journey to recovery.”
The progressive unit is on the seventh floor of the hospital at 1163 Country Club Road in Monongahela.