“Having a psychiatric unit within the confines of the Alexian Brothers Medical Center would expedite mental health services for patients,” said Brian Gross, senior administrator at nearby skilled-nursing facility Manor Care Health Services-Elk Grove Village (PDF), in a letter of support to the board. “Frequently, patients have had to wait in the emergency room or on a medical unit until a bed becomes available.”
Alexian also would convert an area in one of its acute-care facilities into a gero-psychiatric inpatient unit to treat psychiatric patients with medical co-morbidities in one location, as well as relieve some of the burden on Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital.
That hospital, located in Hoffman Estates, Ill., is the seventh largest behavioral health provider nationally, based on net patient revenue last calculated in 2012. But like other psychiatric facilities, it is struggling to meet demand as state-operated psychiatric hospitals close and community hospitals eliminate psychiatric services. The 141-bed facility, which is typically at or near capacity, redirects 1,200 patients each year away from its location to other mental health facilities with available space.
Illinois has decreased its state-operated inpatient behavioral health capacity from more than 35,000 beds in the 1960s to about 1,400 by 2009, according to the Illinois Hospital Association (PDF). Meanwhile, in 2009, Illinois hospital emergency departments treated more than 750,000 patients with a behavioral health condition.
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