Seven Hills Hospital expands; may relieve ERs pressed by mentally ill
A second hospital has committed to helping meet the critical need for more inpatient psychiatric beds in Southern Nevada as mentally-ill patients continue to crowd valley emergency rooms.
Seven Hills Hospital, a 94-bed, private mental health and substance abuse facility in Henderson, recently expanded by 36 beds and is already planning for another addition that could include 32 to 54 beds, CEO Rob Turner said.
“We are just trying to serve the level of need and demand that’s being presented by the community,” he said last week. “Our No. 1 referral source comes from emergency rooms in the community.”
On Friday, 130 patients were being held at local emergency rooms on Legal 2000s, which are issued when those considered to be a risk to themselves or others need to be evaluated. The patients under such holds — which can last up to 72 hours — were waiting to be transported to state-operated Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital, said Dr. Tracey Green, Nevada’s chief medical officer.
Valley Hospital Medical Center last month said it would open an inpatient psychiatric wing with 50 beds. The hospital formed the plan after state officials began contacting hospitals in Clark County to discuss raising the daily Medicaid reimbursement rate for psychiatric patients, which has been criticized for not covering the cost of care. The negotiations grew out of efforts to alleviate the crisis faced by emergency rooms ill-equipped to treat the mentally ill, an issue that has caused some hospitals to close temporarily to ambulances because their beds were full.
A MEDICAID PROPOSAL
The current daily Medicaid reimbursement rate for psychiatric patients in Nevada is $460 a day and hasn’t changed for at least 10 years, according to Mary Woods, spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
The state’s negotiations with hospitals resulted in a proposed reimbursement rate of $944 a day.
Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Care Financing and Policy will hold a public hearing on the proposed reimbursement hike at 9 a.m. on June 12 in Carson City. The hearing will be video-conferenced at the Sawyer Building in Las Vegas.
The reimbursement increase proposal will then go to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for approval.
It could take months to receive approval. If that’s given, the new reimbursement rate would be retroactive to July 1.
Under federal law, freestanding psychiatric hospitals with more than 16 beds — such as Seven Hills — are not reimbursed by Medicaid for patients ages 21 to 64.
However, state officials said that doesn’t apply to psychiatric units inside acute general hospitals, such as Valley.
The majority of the patients at Seven Hills have private insurance, but hospital officials are working with Mike Willden, director of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, to see what can be done for those without coverage, Turner said.
Green said state officials wouldn’t be able to make changes as it is federal law. “But we can put pressure,” she added.
Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services serves about 16,000 patients a year. So far this year, about 7,000 have enrolled in Medicaid, Green said.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is collecting data on programs in a few states as it examines the issue of freestanding psychiatric facilities with more than 16 beds, Green said.
But even if no changes to federal restrictions are made in the near future, the new beds at Seven Hills will still be helpful, Green said. Many more Nevadans now have insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
INVESTING IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE
Seven Hills Hospital invested $12 million in the expansion that opened March 1. It will invest another $13 million to $15 million in a second expansion, which could take about 18 months to complete, Turner said. The hospital will hire 50 to 60 employees as it grows.
Dr. Dale Carrison, University Medical Center’s chief of staff and head of emergency services, said he doesn’t know of any plans at the public hospital to open an inpatient psychiatric wing, adding that UMC is full as it is.
“I think some of the other hospitals are interested because they are not at capacity,” he said Thursday.
However, Valley Hospital is near UMC. Remodeling and improvements for its inpatient psychiatric unit may be completed in November, said Karla Perez, vice president of the acute division for Universal Health Services, which owns Valley Health System.
“We are anxious to be able to fill a community need,” she said on Thursday. “A need that is very evident.”
Carrison said if a hospital doesn’t have the capacity to care for a patient in need of certain services while another hospital does, he can call that hospital and ask that it take the patient.
“It would be a violation” if they didn’t, he added.
St. Rose Dominican Hospitals doesn’t have immediate plans to open inpatient psychiatric units in its hospitals, spokeswoman Kate Grey said.
“We continue to evaluate and enhance the process of behavioral health,” she said last week.
Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center officials wouldn’t say which way they are leaning on inpatient psychiatric care.
“We continue to evaluate how we can best address this growing population and provide them with quality care,” Brendan Bussmann, vice president for strategic development and marketing, said in a statement.
Contact reporter Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Follow @YeseniaAmaro on Twitter.
