Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is a general medical hospital that offers room-based eating disorder medical stabilization for adults. It is located in Boston, Massachusetts and is affiliated with Harvard.
BIDMC does not have an eating disorders treatment unit, but provides a specialized room-based medical stabilization protocol (“ED protocol”) for medically unstable patients with eating disorders.
Length of stay ranges from a few days to a few weeks, depending on individual stabilization needs and how long it takes to stabilize. For adults who need medical stabilization before admission to an eating treatment center, BIDMC helps with this. It can also provide harm-reduction based medical stabilization. The program is voluntary and does not work with involuntary patients.
The treatment team members come to your room, and include nursing, doctor, dietitian, and psychiatry. BIDMC has can provide tube feeding if needed. The hospital also has inpatient swallowing services.
Any reviews or details about the program? Please post in comments below. You can check out the FAQ and Guidelines for suggested questions. Thank you!
When were you there?
July 2025
What level(s) of care did you do (e.g., inpatient, residential, PHP, IOP)?
Inpatient
If applicable: Is it wheelchair accessible?
Yes, as the protocol is within a hospital.
How many patients are there on average?
This is room-based care on a general unit so I’m not sure how many patients are on the protocol. You admit to whatever floor has an available bed. I was the only person on the protocol on my unit, and my nurse told me they prefer to separate patients on the protocol on different floors to prevent triggers.
What genders does it treat?
All
If applicable: Do they support the gender identities of transgender and nonbinary people?
Yes
How often do you see a medical doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist (therapist), nutritionist, nurse, etc?
Nurses and patient care techs (PCTs) come by multiple times a day. Medical doctor comes by at least once daily in addition to a first contact with an intern or resident first thing in the morning. Dietary comes by in your first 24 hours and then meets with you once weekly to review any changes (though they update your meal plan and select your meals daily on their own time). I met with psych twice, once alone and once with other members of the team to discuss the team meeting they’d had. There are no therapists on this protocol.
What is the staff-to-patient ratio?
9:1 overall (attending, resident, intern, dietary, psychiatrist, nurse, PCT, case manager, social worker), 4:1 daily (attending, nurse, PCT, resident or intern)
What sort of therapies are used (e.g., DBT, CBT, EMDR, ACT, exposure therapy, somatic experiencing, etc.)?
No therapy is offered at this level of care.
Describe the average day:
– Vitals every 8 hours, beginning around 4am (unless your vitals are unstable, then it’s every 2-4 hours)
– Refeeding labs every morning
– Daily weights every morning
– Orthostatic vitals daily
– Bed rest throughout the day
– I/Os
– Continuous heart monitor if needed based on labs and vitals
What were meals like?
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all that is served on the protocol. There are no snacks, so everything is incorporated into those three meals.
At the beginning of your stay, you peruse the hospital menu with dietary and select things you are willing to eat and cross out things that are too challenging or that you don’t prefer. The dietitian selects all your meals based on your preferences and your caloric goals each day. No salt allowed, though they allow pepper, salt-free seasoning, and other condiments. If you are plated a condiment besides pepper or seasoning, you are expected to complete it.
You are given 30 minutes to eat supervised at the nurses station without any distractions (phones, books, music, etc.). Meals are followed by one hour of supervision at the nurses station, during which you are allowed books, phone, laptop, etc. If you complete your meal in less than 30 minutes, the hour starts when you finish. If you require the full 30 minutes, the hour starts once the 30 minutes are up.
If you’re on tube feeds, they bolus the feed via syringe. You also have to wait an hour for supervision after the feeds are done.
What sorts of food were available or served?
Typical hospital food, though I will say there was pretty good variety. Breakfast options were things like various muffins, pancakes, french toast, oatmeal, cream of wheat, eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, and fruit. Lunch and dinner were one large menu that included salads, soups, veggie chili, deli sandwiches, roasted turkey breast, baked chicken, pasta, burgers (veggie, turkey, regular), chicken sandwiches, grilled cheese, and much more variety in both the mains and sides available. A variety of desserts was also included.
Did they supplement? How did that system work?
Supplements were offered if you did not complete your solid food. My understanding was that if you completed less than 50%, you were given 2 Ensures, greater than 50% but less than 100% was 1 Ensure. They also used Nepro.
If you do not complete solid food at a meal, you move to liquids (Ensures) for 3 meals. If you complete liquids at the next 3 consecutive meals, you move back to solid foods.
What is the policy of not complying with meals? Do most people complete their meals/snacks?
If you don’t comply with solid meals, they move you to liquids for the subsequent meals until they can move you back to solids. They prefer not to, but as a last resort, they’ll place an NG tube.
If you do have an NG tube, they bolus feeds for the first few days for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After that, they start plating you supplements and you do the best you can in 30 minutes. Whatever you don’t finish is bolused. To come off the tube, you have to complete 3 consecutive supplement meals orally. After that, they’ll move you back to solids and talk about pulling the tube.
If applicable: Do they treat ARFID? If so, do they have a separate approach to meals for ARFID?
I can’t really speak to this as I don’t struggle with ARFID and therefore my treatment was not tailored to this diagnosis, but the dietary team is wonderful and I would assume they could work with ARFID patients.
Are you able to eat vegetarian? Vegan?
In theory, you could eat vegetarian but not vegan. The dietitian selects all your meals but theoretically you could cross out all meat-based options and request not to be served those. I’m not really sure how it works, though, or if they’d actually allow a vegetarian diet.
What privileges are allowed?
One caffeinated beverage is allowed each day unless you’re on liquids or a feeding tube.
Does it work on a level system?
No
How do you earn privileges?
You can earn caffeinated beverages by completing solid food or transitioning back to it after being on tube feeds.
What sort of groups do they have?
No groups, as it is room-based treatment in a hospital unit.
If applicable: Is the program trauma-informed?
This is difficult to answer because there is no therapy, just visits with med doctors, psych, and social work. But I will say that the care teams are excellent and do their best to make you comfortable and make things less scary whenever possible. In that regard, I’d say they’re trauma-informed and aware that being in a hospital is overwhelming.
What did you like the most?
My care team was incredible. I trusted the providers I saw while I was there. They were gentle, kind, and continually promised me they would help get me to a more stable place.
I also liked the structure of the protocol. While things didn’t always run on a strict schedule because of the nature of being on a general ward in a hospital and not at an ED-specific program, there was still consistency in care across nurses, PCTs, doctors, and residents.
What did you like the least?
I wish feeds were continuous instead of bolused, but I understand they do it this way so you can be supervised for an hour after instead of requiring a 1:1 sitter all day.
Would you recommend this program?
I would highly recommend this program for medical stabilization.
What level of activity or exercise was allowed?
You are allowed 1-2 laps around the unit you are on once every 3-4 hours.
What did people do on weekends?
Because this isn’t a treatment center where you are with peers or have groups, you have to find ways to keep yourself entertained each day. I brought headphones, a laptop, several books, and a coloring book to pass the time.
Do you get to know your weight?
No, they do blind weights.
If applicable: How fast is the weight gain process?
I think it depends. If you’re just there to stabilize, the focus is more on intake than weight restoration. If you’re discharging to a program that requires a minimum BMI, I’d imagine your protocol would look a little different.
What was the average length of stay?
Length of stay is dependent on what your plan is post-hospitalization. For those at a low BMI who are planning to admit to an inpatient or residential facility, they will keep you long enough to restore you to the minimum BMI the program you are discharging to accepts. If you are discharging to outpatient, the goal is strictly medical stabilization, after which they will discharge you to your outpatient team. I discharged to outpatient and was in the hospital for 9 days.
What was the average age range?
There’s not an average age range since they admit patients to the hospital on the ED protocol on an individual basis.
How do visits/phone calls work?
Visiting hours are 11am – 8pm. I was able to make or accept phone calls as long as my care team wasn’t visiting and it wasn’t disturbing patients in the surrounding rooms.
What is the electronics policy (e.g., cell phones, iPods, Kindles, laptops, tablets)?
You can bring any electronics you want for your stay. The only strict policies are no photos or videos of staff or other patients in the hospital, and no phones during meal times.
For adolescents: Did they provide time to do schoolwork or offer academic support?
I’m not an adolescent, so I can’t speak to schoolwork. But as an adult who works full-time, I was told by the nutrition coordinator that, as long as work wasn’t interfering with medical care, I was allowed to work remotely. My employer required me to go on medical leave, but the option was there on the hospital’s end.
For inpatient/residential: Are you able to go on outings/passes?
No outings while hospitalized. However, they did offer to let me go outside on the hospital grounds to spend 15 minutes supervised with my dog if my friend was able to bring her, which was nice.
What kind of aftercare do they provide? Do they help you set up an outpatient treatment team?
The care team coordinates aftercare depending on where you are discharging. If you are discharging to a treatment center, they help coordinate that. If you’re discharging to outpatient, they reach out to your OP team to make sure everyone is on board to work with you after being at such a high level of care.
Are there any resources for people who come from out of state/country?
I’m not sure about resources for out of country, but I came from out of state. This didn’t provide any treatment barriers, so I’d imagine if you were from a surrounding New England state things would be equally easy to navigate.
The hospital provides reduced parking rates for patients. The rates are very reasonable compared to everywhere else in Boston.
Other?
The care I received at BIDMC for the eating disorder protocol was great. The only thing I can compare it to is the level of kindness and respect I felt at Center for Change. Nearly every person I interacted with was kind, compassionate, understanding, and willing to listen (barring one of my two psych providers). The care teams are multi-disciplinary, coordinating and making sure everyone is on the same page. I felt like I had agency in my care. I was told that nothing would happen without my consent, that I got to help make the decisions that would impact my treatment.
I appreciated how individualized the team was willing to make my care within the confines of the eating disorder protocol. When I was struggling, they were able to make changes to my care plan and be flexible within the protocol to reduce my anxiety and help me begin to make progress to stabilize.
Even though I was on a specialty unit (just where they had a bed), the nurses and PCTs were trained on the eating disorder protocol. They made sure all the nurses on the unit knew my general situation so they could provide some support when possible, especially during/after feeds and meals.
I will say that, if you struggle with purging behavior, you might need to request additional support. Bathroom use is not monitored with the exception of I/Os throughout the day. You have access to the bathroom in your room all day with no flush checks (which I personally preferred, but I don’t struggle with purging behavior and understand this may be difficult for some).
This is definitely a protocol where you have to advocate for yourself. I think part of that is due to being in a general hospital where there are a million things happening unrelated to treating EDs (unlike a dedicated stabilization unit). I had to ask to speak to the dietitian and doctor more regularly than scheduled when I had questions. I needed to ask for clarification on the protocol and what expectations were, because they weren’t always clearly articulated. I had to advocate for my right to step down to outpatient care. All this being said, I’d recommend Beth Israel. I found the care to be compassionate and I left medically stable, which was the whole point of the admission.
Do you know if they take Medicare? Do you know if they have an upper age limit?
I don’t know if they take Medicare. You’d have to call the hospital. No age limit as far as I’m aware.
Yes! They take Medicare.
I would add that this isn’t a program where you’d fly across the country to stabilize — it’s a resource for those in New England.
May I ask, how does one get into this program? Insurance denied my authorization for ACUTE and I’m looking for something just like this. Is there a certain number I can call?
You would need to be a New England resident, first and foremost, as this is only a local resource. Your primary care physician would need to call ahead and request admission to the ED protocol for you through the emergency department.
I need to take a step back from EDTR and won’t be answering any more questions for now.