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STERLING – CGH Medical Center has cleared a big hurdle in it its efforts to provide Whiteside County with an adult inpatient behavioral health/psychiatry unit.
CGH received Certificate of Need approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board after several community representatives testified at a hearing before a 5-member committee Tuesday in Springfield.
The proposal included a $3.3 million budget and preliminary designs for the project.
Approval for behavioral services need validation is very competitive. The Certificate of Need programs exist as a means of controlling health care costs. The board looks to restrict redundant services, determine the best use of capital spending and help to coordinate facility construction planning.
“We are very pleased with the state’s endorsement of the need for this new unit,” Dr. Paul Steinke, CGH president and CEO, said in a news release. “This moves us closer to addressing a critical need in our community to better serve behavioral health patients.”
The 10-bed unit, which will have private and semi-private rooms, will be on the second floor of the hospital’s south wing. Plans for the unit also include an inpatient detox room on the medical floor, expansion of the existing telepsychiatry program, and a full-time psychiatrist.
The unit will serve a broad range of patients, including those with chronic mental health disorders, and others who might have more acute needs such as mood or anxiety disorders, suicidal/homicidal thoughts, or psychotic episodes.
The new unit will address a longtime gap in local health care services, said Sterling Mayor Skip Lee, who was one of 12 community representatives who attended the hearing.
“For too long those in mental health crises in the city of Sterling have had very limited options for care which would provide long-term solutions and family support. This unit will serve as a valuable addition to the services currently available and provide much needed support to our first responders,” Lee said.
Partners in the project believed need was established in the Whiteside County Community Health Plan that was done in 2015. The plans are done every 5 years.
“The plan indicated that mental health admissions were the most needed service that CGH was currently unable to provide,” said Kristie Geil, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer. “Following the 2012 closure of several area mental health facilities, we found that we would have to make transfer requests to 30 to 35 mental health facilities for each patient.”
Because there is limited space in each facility, some patients would then be held in observation for 3 to 20 days while waiting for placement, Geil said. A 30-month study showed that during that time CGH saw 1,118 adult behavioral health patients of which 953 were transferred. Of those patients, 57% were transferred out of the region, 1 to 2 hours away to Rockford and Chicago.
The first referral for adult patients is to KSB Hospital in Dixon, which has 14 beds. Many children are sent to a facility in Streamwood.
“Our unit must be strictly for adults because a separate lockdown is needed for children and adolescents and logistically we just can’t make that happen,” Geil said.
The short distance to KSB can even be daunting for many Whiteside County behavioral health patients.
“For many of the people we see at the health department, 13 miles might as well be 300 miles, especially when they don’t have transportation,” said Beth Fiorini, former county public health administrator and now a consultant at Whiteside County Health Department.
The unit comes none too soon for the health department’s rapidly expanding behavioral health programs, which include 10 therapists. The need has existed for many years, and a large and cohesive group of partner agency representatives might have helped to win the board’s support in Springfield.
“It was impressive to see how many people came,” Fiorini said. “I think we’ve reaped the benefits of having close-knit agencies who work well together.”
Law enforcement has voiced its concerns about the unmet need for many years. Sterling Police Chief Tim Morgan said officers deal with acute mental conditions several times a week and it can be a drain on resources.
“We take quite a few patients in for evaluation, and if they are unruly, we might have to sit in the emergency room for a long time until they can be transported,” Morgan said.
Preliminary plans call for work to start immediately and the new unit to open near the end of next year.
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Agency representatives in Springfield
Ben Schaab, CGH vice president and chief financial officer; Diana Verhulst, United Way of Whiteside County executive director; Patrick Phelan, Sinnissippi Centers president and CEO; Dr. Paul Steinke, CGH president and CEO; Skip Lee, Sterling mayor; Tim Morgan, Sterling chief of police; John Booker, Whiteside County Sheriff; Cindy Zander, CGH vice president of support services; Sarah Alvarez-Brown, CGH emergency department director; Beth Fiorini, Whiteside County Health Department consultant; Tammy Nelson, Rock Falls chief of police; Kristie Geil, CGH vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer.