Both indoor and outdoor construction on the new Summit Safe Haven is coming along, the nursing staff is hired and it looks forward to opening in the weeks to come. Located in Frisco and always a 24/7 center for detox, now there will be 6 additional beds for mental health acute treatment. Prior to opening […]
Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman had been waiting for this moment for almost two years. It marked the first time Poschman, a lifelong resident of the Roaring Fork Valley, had laid eyes on the newly completed West Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Grand Junction, which had opened its doors for business only weeks prior. Poschman had […]
By Mary Horn, MN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, APN “Dryuary” or “Dry January” started in 2013 in the UK and is gaining popularity in the US. Committing to 30 days of not drinking alcohol is an excellent way to reevaluate your relationship with booze. As you explore other ways to relax and experience life sober, you will […]
West Springs Hospital is proud to announce that Greg Poschman has been named the 2018 Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals/Colorado Chapter for his accomplishments on behalf Building Sanctuary | Rebuilding Lives, the Campaign to build the new West Springs Hospital. Poschman received the award at this year’s annual National […]
Marrie Hibbard estimates that in seven out of every 10 of her shifts at St. Mary’s Medical Center, she has to spend some of her time looking for a bed in a psychiatric hospital on the Front Range for a patient.
The psychiatric social worker said finding beds for patients going through a mental health crisis is a constant struggle. It’s especially tough in Mesa County, where West Springs Hospital, the only psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City, is often full and has a waiting list that can grow upward of 20 people.
“If they don’t have a bed our job is to find them a bed somewhere else in the state,” Hibbard said. “Really, though, West Springs is our first choice.”
She will soon have a much better chance of securing a local bed for a patient, as West Springs prepares to open a critically needed expanded in-patient facility that will double in capacity.
West Springs Hospital, which is part of the Mind Springs Health network, will start to move patients into its new $34 million facility Dec. 11 after a multiyear effort, during which the organization raised about half of the money needed through public and private donations and grants.
At 63,000 square feet, the new building at 515 28¾ Road is nearly four times the size of the current hospital and will have 48 beds — 32 for adults and 16 for adolescents. One of the buildings already in use will stay open and licensed, bringing capacity to 64 beds, up from 32 in its current state.
One building will be torn down later in December to make way for the second phase of the project that will bring another 16 beds into the new West Springs Hospital. Mind Springs will need to raise an additional $7 million for the project. That campaign will likely start sometime next year.
“We’re really excited. It’s going to be a really nice facility for people who need it,” said Kim Boe, executive vice president of Mind Springs Health and West Springs Hospital. “We worked hard to make it a warm, welcoming place.”
The new West Springs Hospital main lobby
In designing the building, Mind Springs looked at other psychiatric facilities around the country and solicited input from staff and regular patients. The building is filled with natural light and has a few enclosed outdoor areas for patients to spend some time outside at the locked facility.
Boe said the patients surveyed asked for natural light, bigger areas for group work and places to relax outside of their rooms.
New amenities at West Springs include a gym with a half-court basketball area and a solar-powered, state-of-the-art kitchen. There is also a dining area for 40 people. Sodexo will provide the food for the hospital.
The current hospital has no kitchen or dining area and the food is brought in from St. Mary’s, according to Boe.
Each of the areas at the new hospital is locked with a key card needed to open most doors. There are 160 key card readers throughout the hospital.
Staffing areas were designed to keep employees safe and give them the ability to keep an eye on as many places as possible so they can see what is going on and take action if needed. Staff offices are in the center of the hospital, making it easy to get to different places and back.
Light-filled dining space for patients and visitors
The new hospital has three entrances, including one for law enforcement.
Patient rooms have wicket doors so patients can’t secure themselves in their room. While the doors swing open into the rooms, a cutout can be unlocked and opened by a staff member that swings open into the hallway. The door hinges are solid so someone can’t put their hand in between hinges and injure themselves or someone else by closing the door.
Each patient room also has its own bathroom. At the current hospital, there is, on average, one bathroom for every four rooms. Boe said there was a code change after the original hospital opened.
The furniture is designed to be “anti-ligature,” which means that the hardware cannot be used to attach anything to it that might inflict harm. The hospital has 26 different kinds of glass and the windows can’t be broken. The pictures on the wall in the hallways are built into the walls and can’t be removed.
“It’s a nice place to be a patient and a staff person,” West Springs Medical Director Dr. Frank Lotrich said.
There was no psychiatric hospital in western Colorado before Mind Springs opened West Springs Hospital in 2006. At the time, Mind Springs, then known as Colorado West Regional Mental Health, offered outpatient psychiatric services. Hospitals such as St. Mary’s Medical Center, Montrose Memorial Hospital and Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango had inpatient psychiatric wards at their facilities. All have gotten out of the business since the opening of West Springs.
While Boe said about 50 percent of the hospital’s patients live in Mesa County, West Springs is geared to serve the entire Western Slope and also takes in patients from places like Moab in eastern Utah.
A waiting list for beds started developing about four years ago, according to Boe, the length of which has ranged from just a few people to more than 20, leaving those in psychiatric crisis in limbo.
Those patients typically have to go home or are sent to places such as St. Mary’s or Community Hospital, where they can at least be monitored and kept safe but don’t really get the care they need.
“It’s a terrible thing to have all these people need you, know you have the expertise to help and not be able to do a thing,” Boe said. “It’s a horrible feeling.”
Mind Springs began discussions on expanding the hospital within months of the waiting list arising and launched an effort to raise half of the money while getting a loan for the rest in hopes of improving and expanding the level of care.
“The buildings we have currently have done a yeoman’s job in the way they are built,” Boe said. “But they were not built where we were anticipating the level of acuity that we are experiencing or the capacity, volume and demand.”
Through its fundraising, the hospital received money from multiple municipalities and counties on the Western Slope whose citizens depend on its services. It received multiple anonymous donations, including $1 million from a resident in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Grants from the Colorado Health Foundation, Colorado Health Access Fund, El Pomar Foundation, Caring for Colorado, Western Colorado Community Foundation and the Boettcher Foundation totaled more than $4.5 million of the $17.75 million needed for the project.
The largest contribution, however, came from SCL Health St. Mary’s, which provided $2.5 million toward the effort. The contribution was made in 2016 to help kickstart the fundraising campaign.
The fundraising website for the hospital indicates it has raised $17.1 million of the $17.75 million goal, but Boe said the effort may be closer to completion than the website states, as discussions are ongoing to secure the rest of the money by the end of the year.
Lotrich said the fundraising effort was successful because so many can relate to the needs of greater mental health services.
“Just about everyone has someone close to them who has a psychiatric illness,” he said. “You don’t have to convince them that it’s common. And everyone knows how little the need is being met.”
Single patient room with private bathroom
Mental health care is not a 21st century trend, Lotrich said, despite the fact that services were severely lacking in the area prior to the hospital’s original opening. However, awareness has grown, stigmas have been broken and walls have come down when addressing psychiatric care.
“There’s always been a need here,” he said. “It’s something people have lived with and suffered with untreated. It’s a sad fact of life.”
A growing wait list at West Springs that pushes patients to the Front Range in search of beds creates gaps in communication and support, Lotrich said.
Western Colorado residents have their support system near their homes and see psychiatric and primary care doctors in the area. When they are forced to get care on the other side of the state, it’s more difficult to have that support travel with the patient and coordinate care after the stay.
Lotrich said the average stay at West Springs is about seven days, but there is a lot of variability.
The hospital is expected to have a big impact in the community in several other facets.
The Grand Junction Economic Partnership performed an impact study for the new hospital in 2016, which estimated it would create 125 new jobs in the first five years and bring in more than $1.4 million in tax revenue for Mesa County over that same span. The total economic impact is estimated at $35 million for the county.
Boe said the hospital has a staff of 160 and is already beginning to expand.
But maybe more important than the economics is the help the larger hospital can provide for local health care providers and law enforcement officers.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies regularly deal with mental health issues and have to decide where to take a person enduring a mental health episode. Those places often end up being the jail or one of the area hospitals. More space at West Springs will open up more opportunities.
“It’ll definitely give us more options. More bed space is only a good thing for this community,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Megan Terlecky said, adding that the hospitals “are able to provide services, but it’s even more ideal to take them to a place that is designed to meet their needs.”
St. Mary’s President Brian Davidson said the expanded hospital would be of great help to his hospital in finding a room for patients who are waiting for a bed. The hospital is also typically not reimbursed by insurance for the patient’s stay. Those factors made the contribution toward the new hospital an easy decision for his hospital and SCL Health.
“We house them with no acute medical problem, which often requires extra staff or security that we are funding to do that,” he said. “We quickly realized we could make that type of investment and see a sizable expense reduction and also benefit the community.”
The Colorado Behavioral Health Council’s Golden Light Bulb Award honors a community mental health program or initiative that provides superior outcomes and can be easily adapted at other mental health centers. Chief Medical Officer Jules Rosen MD and Executive Vice President Michelle Hoy LPC, CAC III proudly accepted the 2018 Golden Light Bulb Award on behalf of Mind Springs Health for the “phase-based treatment of depression” initiative Thursday evening at the Colorado Behavioral Health Council’s annual conference in Breckenridge, Colorado. Dr. Rosen’s ‘Ted Talk’ on the project at the conference followed on Friday.
Developed by the team of Rosen, Hoy and Quality & Assurance VP David Hayden, and piloted at Mind Springs Health’s Grand Junction campus earlier this year, the innovative patient-centric treatment acknowledges the different phases of major depressive disorder a person experiences, integrates therapy and medication to address the specific needs of each phase, and utilizes data to inform and track outcomes.
Now being introduced to Mind Springs Health’s rural offices, the Phase-based treatment program has shown impressive results in improving the symptoms and severity of depression. Of the initial 132 patients treated, 102 continue with the program. By week six 63% reported clinical stability and 78% by week 12, truly remarkable results in any clinical setting. Through coordinated use of psychotherapy, case management, peer support and medications during the acute phase of illness, patients experience faster resolution of symptoms and use fewer mental health resources.
Mind Springs Health’s staff is instrumental in continually improving this process to address the needs of all patients. Promoting positive patient outcomes, reducing wait time and increasing staff satisfaction, the protocol embraces the core mental health treatment values of person-centeredness, accessibility, engagement and cost-effectiveness.
CRAIG PRESS — The number of beds available on the Western Slope for inpatient mental health treatment are set to double — from 32 to 64 — when the new West Springs Hospital opens in Grand Junction in December.
“We are a safe and healing place for frightened people,” said Executive Vice President Kim Boe.
West Springs Hospital is a private, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation that operates on patient-driven revenue from private and government insurance, as well as support from donors, foundations, and other community entities.
Of the $34 million needed to fund the project, the goal was to raise about half, or $17.5 million, through donations. The rest of the project was financed. After about 18 months, the fundraising campaign is nearing its goal with support from people across the Western Slope, including Moffat County, said Sharon Raggio, CEO and president of West Springs Hospital and Mind Springs Health.
“I’m humbled by the support. It speaks to the need our communities see, the hope they have and the value provided by inpatient services,” she told guests who had assembled for Mind Springs Health’s annual mental health conversation Thursday, Oct. 4, at Quality Inn & Suites.
“Thank you for contributions that come out of this community,” she said.
The hospital will open, a month ahead of schedule, with a grand opening Dec. 5 for invited guests and the media; it will begin accepting patients Dec. 12.
“Much thought, planning, and research went into the design of our facility, including data and statistics provided by the state demographer. Based on that research and growth predictions, we determined that, with 64 beds, we should have adequate capacity until at least 2030 We are hopeful we got that right. Time will tell,” Boe said.
A 16-bed wing has been designed specifically for children and adolescents.
The new West Springs Hospital will add jobs and is currently recruiting psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, nurses, case managers, mental health workers, and environmental services workers.
Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs has joined the ALTO Project, a statewide initiative to reduce the number of prescription opioids administered by hospital emergency rooms, as health officials throughout the country seek to reduce prescription misuse. The hospital joined the initiative weeks before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded over $1 […]
West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction, the only psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City, is doubling its available beds
The growing need for mental health care across the Western Slope of Colorado is evidenced in part by the 8 to 12 people on the daily waiting list for admission into West Springs Hospital.
Thanks to the expansion of West Springs Hospital, scheduled to open in December, the amount of available beds will double from 32 to 64 at the only psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City. That means that adults and children seeking care for critical mental health situations or conditions can receive the care when they need it, not days or weeks later.
“Having the capacity to help people at a most imminent risk has been a huge problem,” said Kim Boe, executive vice president at West Springs Hospital. “We no longer anticipate having a waitlist. The shortage of beds has been a constant battle and struggle, not only for us to figure out how to respond as fast as possible, but for the people who can’t get into the hospital when they need care — it puts a burden on their loved ones and a burden on other systems in the community.”
Colorado’s suicide rate increased more than 34 percent between 1999 and 2016, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Boe said the state is responding, though, and has come a long way in terms of the funding it provides for mental health care.
“Mental health is not hiding anymore,” she said. “I think it’s more accepted to reach out for help and seek that help.”
West Springs Treatment
Patients who come to West Springs Hospital have a variety of mental health conditions and concerns. These include suicidal feelings or attempts, psychotic symptoms, depression, extreme anxiety, manic behaviors, delusional thinking and many other conditions.
Upon admission to West Springs, patients are evaluated by a psychiatrist or nurse practitioner who gathers both mental and physical health information. Patients with mental health struggles often also show signs of poor physical health, which is why Boe said it’s so important that West Springs treats the “whole person.”
The average length of stay at West Springs is about seven days. Some patients stay longer, and some can go home after just three or four days. Boe said that in that time frame, the staff can help a patient become well enough to where they can safely go back home and continue to recover in an outpatient setting. They may not be “cured” when they leave the hospital, but they’re no longer at that highest level of risk in which they can’t keep themselves or others safe.
Patients might return for care in the future — sometimes as soon as a couple of weeks after their last discharge — but each patient’s success looks different. What’s important isn’t how many times a patient returns to the hospital, it’s that they’re seeking and receiving the mental health care they need.
The New Hospital
With a new 63,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building directly adjacent to the current hospital, the expansion of care is providing more than just extra beds. A new half-court gymnasium will be a place where patients can release some of their anger or frustrations in acceptable and healthy ways, Boe said.
There will also be a dedicated room for musical therapy and other activities.
“One of the things that I’m excited about is the ability for patients to have more freedom,” said Dr. Frank Lotrich, medical director at West Springs Hospital, referring to the courtyards, gym and other spaces. “I think it really informs the rest of the world that the community takes mental health seriously when they’re willing to invest in this type of building.”
A dedicated child and adolescent unit will allow for more tailored care for those patients, who are increasingly in need of mental health care. Suicide is the leading cause of death among young people in Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Some of the theories about that involve social media, Boe said. It’s not new that adolescents experience a lot of bullying, but what is relatively new is that kids aren’t able to escape it when the school day ends.
“It used to be that the bullies went home for the day. Now, with social media, the bullies follow you,” Boe said.
The new hospital will feature multiple activity and recreation courtyards, as well as warm and welcoming rooms and private spaces for treatment. These spaces will allow psychiatrists, nurses, therapists, mental health workers, social workers and case workers to better deliver the personalized treatment for each and every patient.
“This will be a warm, healing, comfortable, home-like environment, with safety at its core,” Boe said.
The centuries-old search for the fountain of youth may finally be within your grasp. The length of one’s life comes down to how active you are, your diet, keeping a sharp mind and even how much you socialize. Nearly 100 Roaring Fork Valley residents came out for a panel discussion and to listen to guest […]
