 |
| Senator Michael Hastings |
State health officials
approved plans for a 30-bed psychiatric hospital in Tinley Park focusing on
children and adolescents in the south and southwest suburbs in need of
inpatient treatment.
MIRA Neuro-Behavioral Health
Center plans to convert a 40,000-square-foot building at 6775 Prosperi Drive
into an acute care facility. The project is expected to cost $5.6 million and
be ready by August 2021, according to MIRA.
Separately, the Illinois
Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved Ingalls Memorial
Hospital’s plan to end inpatient pediatric care at the Harvey hospital.
With few inpatient beds at
local hospitals set aside for kids needing mental health services, the new
facility presents a “real solution to a problem we’ve had in our community for
a long, long time,” Dr. Chris Higgins told members of the at their meeting
Tuesday prior to the panel approving the project.
Higgins also is founder and
clinical director for Palos Behavioral Health Professionals, a psychology
practice that has locations in Burr Ridge, Mokena and Palos Heights.
[Most read] CPS strike:
Chicago Teachers Union says progress made on ‘about 80’ individual issues, but
not top 5 priorities; classes canceled for Thursday »
State Senator MichaelHastings D-Tinley Park, told the board that “mental health issues are
flooding” emergency rooms of area hospitals.
Higgins had previously said
it is not uncommon for children and their families to wait up to 20 hours in an
emergency room before being referred elsewhere for help, usually to a facility well
outside the south suburbs.
Officials said that the
closing a few years ago of the Tinley Park Mental Health Center also reduced
available resources for adolescents seeking treatment of mental health issues.
MIRA filed its application
with the state board in March, and, after the vote, Higgins said the Tinley
Park project is something he has been working on for the last nine years.
“We did something really nice for children and
adolescents and their families,” he said.
[Most read] Here are 5
things to know about Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2020 budget proposal »
MIRA plans to convert a building
now used by CTF Illinois, a nonprofit that assists more than 500 adults with
developmental and intellectual disabilities.
CTF wants to relocate
programs to smaller facilities that “are more conducive to the needs” of the
people it works with, Mary Pat Ambrosino, chief executive of CTF, told the
board. She said the organization had been unable to find a buyer for the
property to convert it to a commercial use, such as for warehousing and
distribution.
MIRA plans to offer
inpatient and outpatient services, with inpatient care offered 24 hours, daily.
Of the 30 beds, plans call for 25 to be set aside for adolescent patients and
five for children.
Higgins said that,
regionally, just a dozen beds are set aside at area hospitals for inpatient
adolescent psychiatric care and no such beds exist for children.
Questions were raised at
Tuesday’s board meeting about MIRA’s financial plan, which relies almost
exclusively on private pay insurance reimbursement. One board member suggested
that MIRA might focus on patients with private insurance at the expense of
those who are covered by plans such as Medicaid, with lower reimbursement
rates, but Higgins said no patients would be turned away based on ability to
pay.
[Most read] Column: Mitch
Trubisky — and the trade up to draft him —has never looked worse. Can the Bears
straighten him out? »
The review board also
approved a request from Ingalls to close the hospital’s 17-bed inpatient
pediatric unit due to low demand.
Brian Sinotte, Ingalls’
president, told the board the unit would be converted to medical-surgical beds
for adults. Hospital officials had said they hoped to close the pediatric unit
by the middle of next month, pending state approval.
Sinotte said the unit had
been seeing an average of about three patients daily, and told the board that
more pediatric care is being handled on an outpatient basis while parents
seeking more specialized care turn to children’s hospitals. University of
Chicago Medicine, which operates Comer Children’s Hospital, acquired Ingalls in
2016.
Comer and Hope Children’s
Hospital in Oak Lawn, part of Advocate Christ Medical Center, will accept
transfers and referrals from the hospital.
The 485-bed hospital isn’t
ending pediatric care, just inpatient care, Sinotte said.
For more development updates keep following Senator Michael Hastings also known as
Michael Hastings Tinley Park and Michael Hastings Illinois.
Michael Hastings Tinley Park and Michael Hastings Illinois.
