Amita Health plans to close behavioral health units at two of its hospitals before the end of the year, according to legal notices published yesterday.

Inpatient acute mental illness programs at 184-bed Amita Health St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin and 401-bed Amita Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village will close pending state approval, the legal notices say.

The Lisle-based, 19-hospital network said in the notices that it intends to file applications with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board by Sept. 10 to discontinue services.

Clay Ciha, senior vice president and CEO of behavioral health at Amita, said in a statement that the hospital chain aims to establish centers of excellence for behavioral health care in its Fox River Valley and Northwest service areas.

As a result, Ciha said it's moving the Elgin inpatient psychiatric unit to Amita Health Mercy Medical Center in Aurora and it’s moving the Elk Grove Village inpatient geriatric psychiatric unit to Amita Health Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates. A hospital representative was not able to comment on whether the move will result in additional beds at the Aurora and Hoffman Estates facilities.

“These changes better allocate specialized clinicians at a single, stronger program within each region,” Ciha added.

The unit at St. Joseph Hospital has 30 total beds, six of which are for adolescent patients between 13 and 17 years old, the hospital confirmed. Meanwhile, the unit at Alexian Brothers Medical Center has 25 total beds, according to information on file with the Illinois Department of Public Health.

This is the latest example of so-called service rationalization from Amita, which is among hospital chains moving away from traditional one-stop shopping. Executives say discontinuing certain service lines enables them to improve care and save money on surgical equipment, space and staff.

Amita in July said it will stop offering labor and delivery services at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. Before that, it announced it was cutting comprehensive physical rehabilitation at St. Joseph Hospital in Lakeview, as well as open-heart surgery programs at St. Francis Hospital and Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Medical Center in Chicago.