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Hospital, medical officials meet on solution to mental care facility

SONOMA COUNTY, April 23, 2008 – Leaders from every hospital in the county met with other mental health stakeholders this morning to discuss two possible options for opening a much-needed acute adult inpatient psychiatric facility.

In March, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital officials announced the closure of the county’s only facility of this type, leaving a gap in mental health services and pushing the county to accelerate plans to open its own facility.

Sonoma County Director of Health Services Rita Scardaci said the group met for about an hour and a half this morning and decided to follow two possible options, both utilizing a public-private partnership structure.

Officials from Sutter Medical Center Santa Rosa, Memorial, Kaiser Permanente, Southwest Community Health Center, Petaluma Valley Hospital and the three district hospitals attended the meeting, along with representatives from the California Department of Public Health Licensing and Certification and other county mental health staff.

The landlords for Memorial’s former psychiatric care facility on Fulton Road also attended the meeting along with employees of Telecare, a private mental health services provider. Ms. Scardaci said the group plans to meet on a quarterly basis as the decision-making process continues, though parties in the group will also meet with each other on an individual basis.

In both public-private partnership options, the county would contract with a private company for a designated number of beds at a facility operated by that company or several companies. The partner could be a hospital entity like Memorial or Kaiser, but it could also be a private mental health services provider like Telecare.

Ms. Scardaci said the two options are either to contract with a company at the facility that formerly housed Memorial’s program or to find a new site elsewhere in the county. But she did say the Fulton Road campus is preferred because it was already used for that purpose.

“It would be easier to attract a partner if we have a nice facility,” Ms. Scardaci said.

Officials estimate that the county needs about 20 beds to accommodate both publically and privately covered acute psychiatric care patients.

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