Senator Michael Hastings || State OKs new Tinley Park psychiatric hospital focused on kids

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.