OHSU to shutter Hillsboro inpatient psychiatric unit for elderly people

OHSU to shutter Hillsboro inpatient psychiatric unit for elderly people OHSu's decision to close its 21-bed Hillsboro geriatric unit will shutter a large portion of the state's overall treatment capacity for a very vulnerable population, advocates say Nick Budnick Thu, 07/09/2026 - 08:38 Hillsboro Medical Center plans to shut down a longstanding program that provides inpatient psychiatric care to people 65 and older, dealing yet another blow to the state’s behavioral health system. The 21-bed Center for Geriatic Psychiatry is located on the third floor of the hospital, Since 2019, Oregon Health & Science University has operated the hospital, which formerly was known as Tuality Community Hospital. Before moving to Hillsboro, the unit was housed in Forest Grove . Reportedly, it will close September 6. The population served by the unit are some of the most vulnerable in the state: medically complex and fragile, typically experiencing some sort of acute psychiatric condition such as depression, anxiety or psychosis. “It’s a huge loss for Oregon, leaving us woefully underprepared for our growing senior population,” said Chris Bouneff, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He said the decision “will reverberate so negatively through the state’s mental health care system.” Hospital closures of specialty services such as maternity care in recent years have increasingly sparked controversy. Meanwhile, inpatient psychiatric care has been under major stress in Oregon, with reimbursements often not keeping up with costs. The Hillsboro hospital has been staffing about 18 out of the center's 21 beds. Spokespeople for OHSU and the Hillsboro Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for information about the move and why it is happening. Geriatric psychiatric units are intended to treat elderly patients separately since they are considered too vulnerable to receive care in a facility such as the Unity Center for Behavioral Health. Separate housing improves the outcomes of therapy intended to help them recover. When such specialty units go away, providers say, such patients often are instead boarded in already overcrowded hospital emergency rooms that are not designed for them, often to face early release and an uncertain fate. The Hillsboro unit’s closure comes as care at OHSU’s emergency department is already under pressure from excessive boarding, which nurses say is being exacerbated by university leadership’s increased focus on providing more profitable types of complex care. In other words, the move could boost costs elsewhere in Oregon’s health care system. Said Bouneff, “It’s hard to believe that OHSU, a public benefit entity underwritten in part with state funds, would pull out of this important line of business so quietly.” Given the limited number of such beds, he added, the impact will be felt. The main geriatric psychiatric units outside of the OHSU unit in Hillsboro are located at Providence’s hospital in Milwaukie, with 19 beds, and Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville, with 10 beds. Willamette Valley Medical Center’s senior and behavioral health unit tends to consistently be either full or close to it, according to the hospital’s spokesperson, Cyndi Leinassar. “ I know the Providence unit is always full with a waiting list, so the need is definitely there,” Bouneff said. News source The Lund Report