Acadia Healthcare, the nation's largest for-profit owner of psychiatric hospitals, is embarking on a strategy of entering joint ventures with not-for-profit hospital systems to open psychiatric beds.
Acadia is partnering with Ochsner Health System to open an 82-bed psychiatric hospital in LaPlace, La., outside of New Orleans.
The location currently houses Ochsner's River Parishes' Emergency Room, the site of a former LifePoint Health hospital that Ochsner acquired. Ochsner intends to move the free-standing emergency room to a new nearby site, and Acadia will refurbish the building for the psychiatric hospital, the companies said in a news release.
New Orleans is “radically under-bedded” for psychiatric patients, creating long wait lists for care in the area, Acadia CEO Joey Jacobs said. The hospital is expected to open in 2018.
It's a situation that has been spotlighted in many markets as public awareness of mental health issues increases, said Rod Laughlin, a founder and former CEO of Acadia who is now building his own chain of psychiatric hospitals, Perimeter Healthcare.
