CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Persistent overcrowding at West Virginia's two state-run psychiatric facilities has prompted the state to divert patients to community hospitals and private facilities, a practice that significantly drives up the cost of care.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Persistent overcrowding at West Virginia's two state-run psychiatric facilities has prompted the state to divert patients to community hospitals and private facilities, a practice that significantly drives up the cost of care.
West Virginia spends $550 a day to house a patient at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington, and $600 a day at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston.
But the state spends up to $1,220 a day for patients after diverting them to private psychiatric facilities, according to records obtained by the Sunday Gazette-Mail.
On any given day, about 100 West Virginians with mental illness are considered "on diversion" because no beds are available at the state-run hospital.
"We're talking about a lot of money that goes into diversion care," said Clarice Hausch, executive director of West Virginia Advocates, a statewide group that helps people with disabilities. "This is a growth industry, but the answer is not for the state to contract with hospitals for everyone that needs psychiatric care."
Last week, the state Office of the Ombudsman for Behavioral Health cited Bateman for widespread problems caused by severe overcrowding. The office declared the facility was "an accident waiting to happen" with patients sleeping on cots in makeshift rooms without bathrooms, and hospital employees working excessive hours.
About 120 patients were staying at Bateman last week, even though the hospital is licensed for 90 beds.
The report criticized the private psychiatric hospitals for allegedly refusing to accept aggressive and violent patients. The hospitals responded they weren't equipped to handle such patients.
The cost of housing state-diverted patients ranges from a low of $519 a day at St. Mary's Hospital in Huntington to $1,220 at the Chestnut Ridge Center in Morgantown, according to data released by the state Bureau or Behavior Health and Health Facilities.
In Kanawha County, Highland Hospital charges $746 a day for patients transferred from Sharpe and $721 for patients diverted from Bateman. Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston is reimbursed $867 a day per patient.
A dozen facilities across the state accept psychiatric patients when the state hospitals are full. Nine of those facilities charged more per diverted patient this year compared to 2007.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Persistent overcrowding at West Virginia's two state-run psychiatric facilities has prompted the state to divert patients to community hospitals and private facilities, a practice that significantly drives up the cost of care.
West Virginia spends $550 a day to house a patient at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington, and $600 a day at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston.
But the state spends up to $1,220 a day for patients after diverting them to private psychiatric facilities, according to records obtained by the Sunday Gazette-Mail.
On any given day, about 100 West Virginians with mental illness are considered "on diversion" because no beds are available at the state-run hospital.
"We're talking about a lot of money that goes into diversion care," said Clarice Hausch, executive director of West Virginia Advocates, a statewide group that helps people with disabilities. "This is a growth industry, but the answer is not for the state to contract with hospitals for everyone that needs psychiatric care."
Last week, the state Office of the Ombudsman for Behavioral Health cited Bateman for widespread problems caused by severe overcrowding. The office declared the facility was "an accident waiting to happen" with patients sleeping on cots in makeshift rooms without bathrooms, and hospital employees working excessive hours.
About 120 patients were staying at Bateman last week, even though the hospital is licensed for 90 beds.
The report criticized the private psychiatric hospitals for allegedly refusing to accept aggressive and violent patients. The hospitals responded they weren't equipped to handle such patients.
The cost of housing state-diverted patients ranges from a low of $519 a day at St. Mary's Hospital in Huntington to $1,220 at the Chestnut Ridge Center in Morgantown, according to data released by the state Bureau or Behavior Health and Health Facilities.
In Kanawha County, Highland Hospital charges $746 a day for patients transferred from Sharpe and $721 for patients diverted from Bateman. Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston is reimbursed $867 a day per patient.
A dozen facilities across the state accept psychiatric patients when the state hospitals are full. Nine of those facilities charged more per diverted patient this year compared to 2007.
State officials have said they're aware of the overcrowding problem and are working to find a solution.
"I don't think anybody's going to argue that diversion hospital costs are higher," said John Law, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Resources. "But when you only have a finite number of beds at the state hospitals, you have to do something. [Diversions] get people out of the over-bedded hospitals."
Hausch said the state should bolster community-based mental health services. That would save the state money, alleviate overcrowding at Bateman and Sharpe and decrease the number of patients diverted to private facilities, she said.
"The solution is not more hospital beds," Hausch said. "If people can't access community-based services, they get worse and worse until they wind up in emergency rooms and get committed to the state hospitals."
Hausch said some patients are forced to stay at state-run hospitals because there's no place to send them. Affordable housing for people with mental illness is scarce, she said.
"They used to drop people off at the homeless shelters by the vanload," Hausch said. "The homeless shelter should not be the discharge route out of the hospital."
Hausch said homeless shelters have received state grants to develop services for the mentally ill, but more needs to be done.
"Nobody's checking on them and saying, "'Do you have food, do you need housing?'" Hausch said. "The person comes out of the state hospital. They don't have supports. They decompensate and wind up back in the hospital."
Hausch also believes keeping the mentally ill at state psychiatric hospitals and private facilities hurts West Virginia's economy. They're not paying rent, buying groceries and shopping for clothes.
"People with mental illness can be significant economic contributors," Hausch said. "That's lost if they're locked up in a hospital."
Law said the state supports serving people in communities, "but there have to be hospital beds somewhere."
Reach Eric Eyre at erice...@wvgazette.com or 348-4869.
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