Another psychiatric hospital in the works
A new behavioral-health hospital planned for the South Side is one of at least five new inpatient psychiatric facilities that have opened or are planned in Columbus.
The $17 million RiverVista Health & Wellness hospital will offer 80 beds for adults, including the elderly, with psychiatric or substanceabuse problems or both. It will be the third hospital in the state for Cincinnatibased NewVista Healthcare. The others are in Cincinnati and suburban Cleveland.
RiverVista chief executive Zino Storr said there is an unmet demand in central Ohio.
“The need (for beds) for patients struggling with psychiatric disorders has increased and the capacity in Columbus is definitely lacking,” Storr said. “We definitely see a need there.”
Plans are to open RiverVista early next year. RiverVista joins several new or planned mental-health facilities in the city as private companies and hospitals seek to meet that need.
This spring, two additional private inpatient hospitals opened: SUN Behavioral Columbus, a 144-bed psychiatric hospital on the North Side, and Columbus Springs East on the Northeast Side, with 24 beds and plans for as many as 48 more. Mount Carmel Health System also plans to open an 80-bed inpatient behavioral-health hospital on the East Side in fall 2018.
For children, Nationwide Children’s Hospital plans to open a behavioral-health pavilion, with space for 66 inpatient beds, on its Downtown campus in 2020.
Central Ohio historically has been “under-bedded” compared with other regions of the state when it comes to serving the number of people who need inpatient psychiatric care, said Jeff Klingler, president and chief executive of the Central Ohio Hospital Council, which works to find inpatient beds for patients waiting in emergency departments.
“We are seeing over the years a significant increase in numbers who are coming to our EDs who are in need of inpatient psychiatric care,” he said.
In May 2009, about 400 people waited for beds in emergency departments; this May, that number was more than 1,150.
The addition of new facilities, Klingler said, will bring the region in line with — and possibly above — other regions of the state.
RiverVista will be housed in a renovated 100,000 square-foot building that dates to the 1920s and sits on 17 acres at Alum Creek Drive and Frebis Avenue. The facility was the site of the Regency Manor Rehabilitation and Subacute Center until November, when the state revoked the nursing home’s license because of a series of health and safety violations.
Along with its inpatient beds, the new facility will have an outpatient program called SteppingStone, which will treat people who do not need inpatient care and also help those who have been hospitalized reintegrate into their communities.
Medicaid patients will be accepted, Storr said.
Even with RiverVista and the other new facilities, the Columbus area still will not have enough inpatient psychiatric-care beds, especially as it grows, Storr said, citing the company’s market analysis.
“It’s still going to leave Columbus about 180 beds short of being able to take care of the population, and that’s just basing it on data for 2017,” he said. “The need for more beds is going to increase.”