The Times West Virginian

Local News

June 13, 2008

UPDATE — W.Va. psychiatric hospitals routinely overcrowded

By TOM BREEN

CHARLESTON — Persistent overcrowding at West Virginia’s two acute care psychiatric hospitals costs the state millions of dollars a year, and has prompted some policymakers to consider a third facility.

There are currently 240 beds at William R. Sharpe Hospital in Weston and Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington, according to the state Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities, a number far below what’s needed to accommodate the state’s patients.

The most recent count of patients who had been involuntarily committed, compiled Thursday, was 379.

“It is a recurring situation,” said Vickie Jones, assistant commissioner of the bureau. “We’re working on solutions, both in the long term and the short term.”

When psychiatric hospital beds fill up, many patients are sent to private hospitals, with the state paying the bill. Jones said the state expects to spend nearly $8 million on such diversions this year, up from around $7 million last year.

But other patients who cannot leave the acute care hospital — such as those committed as part of a criminal justice proceeding — remain in Sharpe and Bateman even as the number of patients exceeds the number of licensed beds.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the hospitals are in danger of incurring penalties, as long as they add staff members with the increased number of patients and have a plan to gradually reduce the overcrowding, according to Ken Powers, spokesman for the Chicago-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

West Virginia’s two hospitals have never been in danger of losing accreditation from the Joint Commission, Jones said, although overcrowding has been a problem for years.

Part of the reason for overcrowding is that the number of involuntary commitments — achieved through filing what are called mental hygiene petitions in state courts — has been steadily rising over the last decade.

There were 8,877 such petitions filed in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, according to state Supreme Court spokeswoman Jennifer Bundy. In 2000, there were 5,553 such petitions filed.

Jones said possible long-term solutions include the development of new community and group homes for patients.

That may not be enough to seriously reduce the pressure, according to Delegate Don Perdue, chairman of the Health and Human Resources committee in the House of Delegates.

“The problem is egregious, and it’s been going on for a long time,” he said. “I’m very concerned about a situation where we have overcrowding and low morale. I’m worried that something very ugly could happen here.”

Perdue wants the state to explore an idea raised by some in the Department of Health and Human Resources to create a third hospital just for so-called forensic patients. Those are patients whose commitment is linked to the criminal justice system, including people found mentally unfit to stand trial.

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