MetroHealth to close psychiatric emergency department by year’s end — but Ronayne says the county isn’t to blame

CLEVELAND, Ohio — As warned, MetroHealth System announced Friday it will close its new Psychiatric Emergency Department in Cleveland Heights by year’s end — a casualty, it says, of Cuyahoga County’s decision to fund a competing behavioral health crisis center.

MetroHealth CEO Dr. Christine Alexander-Rager had cautioned for weeks that county support for a new crisis facility, to be operated by The Centers, would siphon away funding and patients from MetroHealth’s 10-bed psychiatric emergency unit, forcing it to close. The unit opened just a year ago to fill the gap left when St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center shut down its psychiatric emergency services.

The facility couldn’t operate without that money, she’d said, and she couldn’t justify duplicating services. She reiter