Medical center submits certificate of need for additional beds

PALMER — Mat-Su Regional Medical Center’s new CEO Dave Wallace is making a community push for support of a planned expansion aimed at helping bring inpatient behavioral health services to the hospital.

Wallace said MSRMC submitted an application of need to the state to add 36 inpatient behavioral health beds for adult substance abuse and mental health services on June 27.

“Currently, these services are non-existent in the borough. In light of the alarming opioid epidemic and growing instances of mental health crises, being forced to rely on the local emergency department as a substitute for behavioral health care is no longer an option,” Wallace said.

Because of the void, individuals needing medical assistance are forced to present themselves in the hospital’s emergency room. Wallace said the hospital is on track by year’s end to rack up more than 1,100 behavioral health assessments for patients who present in its emergency department in crisis for substance abuse or mental health issues.

“To give you an idea of the depth of the problem,” Wallace said, “just three years ago, only 349 of these assessments were required. Without having inpatient behavioral health beds close at hand, our emergency department was forced to handle two or more patients in crisis from mental health or addiction issues at the same time on 234 occasions in 2016. To put this in perspective, the emergency department had to face this situation just five times in 2012.”

To help drive home the need, hospital officials are in the midst of drumming up Valley-wide backing by contacting various groups and agencies asking them to send letters of support for what they say is a critical need in the Mat-Su. If successful in getting the allocated beds, services will be available for both voluntary admissions and involuntary commitments under Title 47 of the Alaska Statutes.

Wallace said the Mat-Su not only has high substance abuse and prevalence rates, it also has been especially rocked by opioid abuse, as demonstrated by Gov. Bill Walker’s declaration in February that the state’s opioid crisis is a “public health disaster.”

Wallace said the project’s overall goal is to, first, stabilize someone who presents at the hospital. Once a patient is stable, he said, the goal is to connect them with community behavioral health providers at discharge so that he or she can access longer term care at the community level in an outpatient setting. If MSRMC is successful in its campaign, plans call for staffing the program with psychiatrists, nurses, licensed therapists and recreational therapists. Those specialists will be able to help patients develop tools to cope with their behavioral health issues while transitioning to longer-term care at the community level.

“Substance abuse is a serious issue in the Mat-Su Borough, especially with the opioid abuse epidemic. This project will help with immediate addiction issues by addressing medical (needs),” Wallace said.

Hospital officials are asking area agencies involved with community substance abuse agencies to submit support letters by Aug. 22 to Alexandria Hicks, Certificate of Need Coordinator

for Department of Health and Social Services, Office of Rate Review. Wallace said the address is 3601 C Street, Suite 978 Anchorage, AK 99503. Letters may also be emailed to Alexandria.Hicks@alaska.gov.

Anyone with questions may contact Jared Kosin, MSRMC director of business development at 907-861-6518, or j.kosin@msrmc.com.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com