State regulators have given their tentative approval to a new psychiatric hospital in Wilsonville, but only if the company behind the project makes a significant concession.
The Oregon Health Authority has proposed that the hospital be approved but only if its owners agree to dedicate 45% of its beds to mentally ill patients who have been committed, or are in custody or in diversion programs. Diversion refers to counseling, rehab and other alternatives to trial that are generally made available to teens and first-time or low-level offenders.
In other words, the state wants the proposed $47 million hospital to devote nearly half its beds to patients who often have little money and no insurance.
“These conditions help assure this investment will help where we need it most: vulnerable Oregonians in mental health crisis who are not well-connected to systems of care and support,” said Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority.
It’s unclear how backers of the hospital will respond to the demands. Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services had proposed a 100-bed facility without the requirements for usage that the state is proposing. Universal could not be reached for comment Sunday, but a company spokesman indicated last week that the state’s requirements could pose a challenge.
“There are obvious hurdles and the conditions need to be considered in light of the original proposal,” company spokesman Michael Sorensen told The Lund Report.
The company has been trying for five years to build the hospital. Universal owns hundreds of hospitals and clinics across the country, including Southwest Portland’s Cedar Hills Hospital, a 98-bed operation that bills itself as “a wellness facility that’s focused on the health of mind and body.”
State rules give the applicant or anyone else dissatisfied with its ruling 10 days to request a hearing.
Some local critics oppose the Wilsonville hospital because of Universal’s legal problems.
Last summer, the company agreed to pay $117 million to settle a U.S. Department of Justice Medicare fraud investigation. The payment will “resolve allegations that its hospitals and facilities knowingly submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare, Medicaid,” and other federal programs, the justice department said at the time.
Justice department investigators were also looking into whether Universal charged its patients for services that were not medically necessary.
In 2017, the Oregon Health Authority rejected Universal’s plan for the Wilsonville facility saying the hospital management company failed to prove a need for such a hospital. But times have changed.
In a letter to Universal, state officials said they want the new hospital to alleviate the problem of patients with behavioral health issues crowding into hospital emergency rooms. Hospitals don’t have the rooms, so those patients are kept in the emergency room for hours or days while staff tries to find a program or institution that will take them, the state said
“The addition of acute inpatient psychiatric beds has the potential to reduce the number of individuals waiting in EDs (emergency departments) and increase the likelihood that they will receive appropriate stabilization or treatment,” said Steve Allen, behavioral health director at the Oregon Health Authority, in the letter to Universal.
Additional beds in Wilsonville might also reduce the long waiting list for involuntary civil commitments, when patients are involuntarily admitted to mental health hospitals.
The Wilsonville facility would be called Willamette Valley Behavioral Health. It would employ 200 people.
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August 30, 2021 at 10:24AM
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State gives nod to Wilsonville mental hospital with one major condition - OregonLive
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