Farewell to YPI

After almost 70 years, the Yale Psychiatric Institute is closing its doors, a victim of the new economics of health care. YPI’s functions will transfer from the School of Medicine to Yale-New Haven Hospital as soon as the change is approved by the state’s Office of Health Care Access. William H. Sledge, M.D., assistant chief of psychiatry at the hospital, will be medical director of the new facility, which will be known as the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and will occupy the same Frank Gehry-designed building on the corner of Cedar Street and Congress Avenue. Sledge said three factors led to the decision to close YPI. Yale-New Haven Hospital has more access to patients through its medical services and can participate in federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid more fully than a free-standing psychiatric hospital. "The other part of it is that it is very inefficient to have two psychiatric services operating side by side and duplicating a lot of the overhead and other support services," Sledge said. And, he added, a free-standing psychiatric institute lacks the negotiating clout of a hospital that’s part of a larger health care system.