Valleywise Health reopens behavioral health beds in Maryvale

Valleywise Health re-opened 15 in-patient behavioral health beds at its Maryvale location this week. The beds were closed in 2022 due to staffing challenges that have plagued the health care industry.

Valleywise Health is the largest provider of court-ordered inpatient behavioral health care in Arizona, with 412 licensed beds at three hospitals in Mesa, Maryvale, and Central Phoenix.

Labor shortages led to the closure of three wings of the Maryvale hospital. In response, Valleywise Health launched an aggressive recruiting campaign with sign-on bonuses for psychiatric nurses, technicians, and other staff members.

“We got some money through the American Rescue Plan Act from COVID, through Maricopa County, as well as the Governor’s office to allow us to do sign-on and retention bonuses. So I think that really jumpstarted this for our RN jobs and Ph.D. job,” said Gene Cavallo, Senior Vice President of Behavioral Health at Valleywise.

Dozens of beds remain unused, but Valleywise plans to gradually reopen them.

“We’re targeting September as opening some additional beds at Maryvale, and that leave us a year from now, we’ll hopefully be done and all of them will be open,” said Cavallo.

Valleywise also began a partnership with Creighton University, which has been helpful in filling position gaps.

“We get nursing students, we get medical students that do their rotations in our facilities, and some of those nursing students come to work for us as nurses. We get several of our psychiatric residents through the Creighton Medical School, so it’s just a win-win for everybody involved,” Cavallo explained.