New hospital 'a win' for mental health patients

Calling it “a win for the state,” Gov. Mike Parson joined with Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox and representatives of SoutheastHEALTH and Universal Health Services to cut the ceremonial ribbon Tuesday at the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital.

“This is really going to make a difference in people’s lives,” the governor said. “For too many years, and I’ll go back to my old sheriff’s days, we’ve put mental health on the back burner and tried to deal with it after things got out of hand.”

Addressing a group of about 100 people who gathered to witness the behavioral hospital opening, Parson said “we can’t ignore” the need for behavioral health care.

“I guarantee you, everyone in this room knows somebody that has been affected by the issue of behavioral health,” he said. “We need a lot more facilities like this across the State of Missouri.”

The 102-bed, $33 million Southeast Behavioral Hospital on South Silver Springs Road will provide inpatient and outpatient mental health care to adults as well as adolescents and geriatric patients.

Tim Cockrell, chief executive officer and managing director of the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital, makes opening remarks during the ribbon-cutting event Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

The first patient admissions will likely take place during the week of March 8, according to Tim Cockrell, Southeast Behavioral Hospital’s managing director and CEO.

“We’ll open a few beds at a time, then slowly grow,” he said, adding that staff hiring is still underway. When fully staffed, the hospital will have more than 180 employees, including clinicians, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, administrative staff, environmental services personnel and dietary professionals.

The hospital is a joint project partnership between SoutheastHEALTH and Universal Health Services, which will oversee the day-to-day operations and management of the facility.

In his remarks prior to the ribbon-cutting, Southeast CEO Kenneth Bateman said SoutheastHEALTH’s partnership with Universal Health Services will be key to the facility’s success.

“We selected UHS because they’re one of the nation’s most respected hospital management companies and, as our partner, they specialize in behavioral health expertise,” Bateman said and pointed to the company’s “impressive record of achievement and performance” in behavioral health care.

Ken Bateman, president and CEO of SoutheastHEALTH, speaks during the ribbon-cutting event at the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital on Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

A growing need

The new hospital, he said, will fill a growing need for mental health services in this region.

“One in 10 Missouri adults will experience a mental health illness during their lifetime and 40% of those adults will not have been able to receive treatment,” Bateman said. “And nearly one in 10 children between the ages of 12 and 17 in Missouri will experience a depressive episode during the previous year.”

A lack of behavioral health care services, Bateman said, has led patients and families in crisis to go to emergency departments at acute care hospitals. The number of Missouri Medicaid patients seeking help for problems related to mental health increased by 212% in 2018 compared to 2017, he said.

“This challenges the care team’s ability to provide appropriate treatment and stabilization, post-discharge placement and patient transportation,” Bateman said. “Southeast and UHS intend to substantially bridge the gap by providing specialized care to patients along our west campus health care corridor.”

Gov. Mike Parson makes a speech about the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital during the ribbon-cutting event Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

Compounded by the pandemic

The need for behavioral health care services has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which, Bateman said, “has challenged health care providers in ways we could never imagine.”

The pandemic has magnified mental health issues in the United States as people deal with a variety of issues caused by the coronavirus.

“The mental health impact (of the pandemic) will be with us for years to come across all age groups,” Bateman said, and alluded to the behavioral health services offered through the new hospital. “Having a facility with these types of resources is crucial to supporting residents who have lost their jobs or their businesses, or who have suffered from stress, isolation and the loss of family and friends,” he said.

Bateman said Southeast Behavioral Hospital is one of the few mental health facilities in the region providing services to children and their families.

Gov. Mike Parson makes a speech about the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital during the ribbon-cutting event to the socially-distant crowd Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel

“There are very few facilities that offer (mental health) services to adolescents on an inpatient basis, so to have 20 to 25 dedicated beds (for children), that will be a huge impact for this community, because otherwise they’re going to St. Louis, they’re going to Memphis, they’re going out-of-state to find an inpatient bed for an adolescent.”

Most inpatient stays at the new facility will average between six and eight days, according to hospital staff.

SoutheastHEALTH Board of Trustees member and 32nd Judicial Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Lewis, who attended the ribbon-cutting, said the new facility will help fill a need for emergency mental health care services.

“We need a place to be able to send people for involuntary commitments and not have it be so far away,” Lewis said. Those situations, he said, happen almost daily and often have required transport of patients to facilities several hours away.

Want more business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Go to www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.

Ethan Permenter, Universal Health Services divisional vice president, makes a speech at the new Southeast Behavioral Hospital during the ribbon-cutting event Tuesday in Cape Girardeau.Sarah Yenesel