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Boise, Idaho, Psychiatric Hospital Plans to Nearly Double Capacity

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 18:01 CDT

By Melissa McGrath, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Oct. 27--A local private psychiatric hospital is nearly doubling its size and patient capacity with an addition that could help alleviate what many local health care professionals call the serious lack of mental health care options in the community.

Intermountain Hospital in Boise is adding 90 new beds to its existing 127-bed facility located in a brick building off Emerald Road and just behind the Ada County jail. The hospital treats both children and adults with mental health disorders and drug and alcohol addictions.

The Treasure Valley "is in dire need" of these additional beds, said Richard Failla, the chief executive officer of Intermountain Hospital. He estimated that at any given time, the local community is about 50 beds short of what it needs.

That's why Psychiatric Solutions Inc., the company that operates more than 50 psychiatric facilities nationwide and bought Intermountain Hospital this summer, decided to expand the hospital right away, Failla said.

"We're just looking at taking care of the Treasure Valley," he said.

Local health care leaders said the Treasure Valley and the state do not have enough health care professionals or inpatient beds to meet the mental health needs of the population.

"I was glad to hear (the expansion) was happening because for all the folks that are looking at mental health issues, one of the hot issues is the lack of capacity," said Steve Millard, president of the Idaho Hospital Association. "I think Intermountain is doing the right thing to provide additional capacity that is sorely need in this area."

The federal government has designated the entire state of Idaho, including Ada County, as a health professional shortage area for mental health care, which means the area lacks the number of psychiatrists required to meet the needs of the population.

Under federal guidelines, an area has a shortage when it has only one full-time psychiatrist for every 20,000 residents, but Ada, Boise, Elmore and Valley counties -- which makes up one region under federal health care guidelines -- have one psychiatrist for about every 23,000 people, said Laura Rowen, who collects this data for the state Division of Health.

This addition at Intermountain Hospital will not improve this designation because the hospital does not plan to add any more doctors.

"That (designation) means from the start of the conversation, we are woefully lacking in mental health professionals relative to the size of all of our communities," said Catherine Serio, director of mental health services at Family Medicine Residency of Idaho. Serio also chairs the committee that oversees the Healthy Communities Access Program survey, a study of health care needs in Ada County, especially for the low-income and uninsured.

The HCAP study released last month found that about 23 percent of people in Ada County suffered from a mental illness or substance abuse problem in the last five years. Twenty percent of those with problems did not seek professional help, and nearly half of the people who did seek help visited their family doctors, the study showed.

That's because many could not get help at the area inpatient or outpatient mental health facilities that are at capacity or too expensive, Serio said.

"We are very restricted in the number of inpatient beds (in the area)," she said. "To that issue, I give Intermountain credit for increasing the number of inpatient beds. But their mission is for-profit."

Serio worries about care for low-income and uninsured patients.

Saint Al's, a non-profit facility, is required to accept all patients regardless of their ability to pay. Intermountain, a privately owned for-profit business, is required by law to treat all patients only in its 24-hour emergency department.

But Intermountain officials said that does not prevent them from helping all patients who come to them for help in any department.

"If anybody comes to our door and needs medical care, we'll provide that care," said Charles Christiansen, director of business development at Intermountain Hospital. The hospital treats a number of uninsured and low-income patients each year, Christiansen said, but he could not provide specific numbers.

In the next two years, the hospital plans to add 30 new residential beds, 60 new acute care beds and a recreational facility with gym equipment for patients. The residential beds are reserved for children ages 12 to 18 with mental disorders who usually stay for about four months and mostly come from out of state.

The acute care beds are for adults and children with mental disorders or substance abuse problems who stay for up to 10 days, on average, and are usually from the Treasure Valley. Intermountain Hospital also has a 21-day drug and alcohol treatment program.

"It can't hurt," Sherry Parks, director of behavioral health services at Saint Al's, said of the addition. She runs Saint Al's 32-bed mental health care facility near Intermountain Hospital, which handles only acute care patients and is always at or near capacity.

But she added that she thinks "the need will always exceed the capacity."

Intermountain hospital is still accepting bids for the construction project so officials could not say how much the expansion will cost. But they said they hope to break ground on the 30-bed residential unit this fall.

As soon as the addition is complete, the hospital hopes to hire 80 to 100 new nurses, technicians and other staff. The facility has 12 doctors, Failla said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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