Inova Health System joins shift in hospitals investing in inpatient behavioral health

The hallways of Inova Health System's newest inpatient mental health unit gleam white and new. With all private patient rooms, they look very much the style of patient rooms popping up in brand new hospital towers around this region of the country.  And despite safety design features—such as hidden sensors to help monitor patients at risk for self-harm and doors that are built to be barricade-proof—that is what Inova hopes patients will see in the newly renovated unit. "Three years ago, we embarked on this journey to increase behavioral health beds with the knowledge that we really needed to find more specialized care for our patients outside of a general psychiatric population. We do that with any other type of illness," said Michelle Mullany, Inova's assistant vice president of behavioral health.