Timberline Knolls has named Sari Abromovich, MSW, MBA, as its new CEO. Previously, she served as CEO of Harbor Oaks Hospital in Michigan.

Abromovich tells Behavioral Healthcare Executive that the landscape is changing in behavioral health, and Timberline Knolls is adapting its programming to treat more complex cases. Not only is severity a concern, but clinicians are also seeing more patients with multiple diagnoses and co-occurring conditions.

“The folks that we’re treating in residential care these days have similar acuity to those we used to treat in acute care,” Abromovich says. “Often the people previously treated in residential care now find their insurers are recommending partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient.”

She says she will be able to leverage her executive background in psychiatric acute care to help Timberline Knolls respond to the needs of the organization’s patient population and the pressure from payers.

“We just broke ground on a new 56-bed unit that will be done next year,” she says. “We can use that space as an environment to treat more complex and co-occurring diagnoses.”

After the new unit is complete, Timberline Knolls will have more than 200 beds for residential treatment for women and girls with eating disorders, addiction, trauma, mood and co-occurring disorders in addition to its partial hospitalization and outpatient programs. In and around campus, recovery residences provide living facilities for some partial hospitalization patients.

In the meantime, Abromovich says the organization is preparing for new clinical staff to join and further training for the existing workforce.

“There has been a fluctuation in leadership here, so I am trying to nurture the team and have them feel strong and feel good about the work they’re doing,” she says.

Related: Timberline Knolls names new CEO