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W.Va. may get new mental hospital
West Virginia Public Workers Union members, Vinson Workman, left, and Loretta Alhadi hold signs during a protest Friday, July 18, 2008 at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington.
Purchase this photoCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ A new 148-bed psychiatric hospital in Beckley is one of the options the state is exploring to ease overcrowding in its two acute care mental health facilities.
The options are included in a letter from the attorney's general's office that was obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The letter, dated Aug. 27, was sent to David Sudbeck, the state ombudsman for behavioral health, who released a report in July detailing crowded conditions at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington.
The letter says the state Department of Health and Human Resources "has made great strides" in trying to stay within the two hospitals' capacity of 240 beds, but that factors ranging from an aging population to a rise in substance abuse-related commitments have made it impossible in recent years to avoid some crowding.
One of the options is the possibility of a hospital in Beckley, for which the letter says Appalachian Regional Hospital is preparing a certificate of need application. A call to Appalachian Regional Healthcare, the hospital's parent company, was not immediately returned.
Other possibilities under discussion include using 30 beds at a Highland Hospital facility due to be built in Charleston and using the recently closed Vocational Rehabilitation Center in Institute.
The letter also said DHHR wants to hire up to 70 permanent employees at Bateman hospital to cut down on the use of employees hired for 90-day stints.
The use of temporary employees has been criticized by members of the UE Local 170 Public Workers Union who work at Bateman. They've complained that temporary employees last long enough only to be properly trained before their contracts expire.
In his July report, Sudbeck called on the state to re-evaluate the use of temporary employees with a view to learning whether it was harming patient care.
Calls to Sudbeck and DHHR spokesman John Law were not immediately returned Friday.
The letter says Sudbeck's recommendation to look into a separate psychiatric facility for "forensic" patients — those committed by the criminal justice system — isn't necessary, since the state is already moving to alleviate crowding.
"Temporary staffing must be used to insure patient safety and permanent staff engaged in direct care must be required to work overtime," the letter says.
"Beds must be found for patients even at the expense of temporary crowding and diminution of privacy. Bateman hospital has risen to this challenge."
