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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > TALKS COULD SALVAGE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Article published - February 24, 2008
Credit: The Press Democrat
Talks Could Salvage Mental Health Services
By Martin Espinoza
A chance to save psychiatric services provided by Memorial Hospital hinges on talks over the future of the only general acute care medical facility on Santa Rosa's west side.
Horizon Mental Health Management, hired by Memorial to operate the psychiatric facility that is part of the Fulton Road medical complex, wants to turn it into an independent psychiatric operation with expanded services for children and adolescents.
At issue is whether the Horizon proposal would require a change in the medical license for the complex, a large single-story building with several wings.
The owners, retired psychiatrist Daniel Marrin and retired dentist Jim Berger, want to maintain existing acute care services, including psychiatric, head trauma rehabilitation and urgent care.
Any change, they said, could make it more difficult to expand medical services on their site to meet needs in west Santa Rosa, the city's fastest-growing area.
Also, they said Horizon is offering too little for the property.
"Their offer is not only one-third of the appraised value, it also would change the license and make it impossible for me to continue to develop medical surgical programs that the west side will need, if not today, then certainly tomorrow," said Marrin.
Donald Thayer, Horizon Health's executive vice president of acquisitions and development, declined to comment about talks over the Fulton campus. The company last week said it was trying to work out an agreement with Berger and Marrin to continue providing mental health services at the location.
The proposed "free-standing" facility probably could be operated with a smaller staff, Marrin said. But he opposes any attempt to downgrade the facility's licensing.
George Perez, president and CEO of St. Joseph Health System in Sonoma County, which operates Memorial, informed Berger by letter that Memorial wanted to "de-license" psychiatric beds at the Fulton Road campus.
The letter was dated Feb. 12, the day before Memorial Hospital announced closure of the three off-site patient units.
Perez said in an interview last week he did not mean to use the word "de-license," but rather was saying Memorial wanted to put the psychiatric beds in suspension because they would no longer be in use after the acute care units close in April.
"All they do is have to take it out of suspension," he said. "Suspending them won't harm them in any way."
Licensing concerns
Marrin said the language in the Feb. 12 letter was clear. Both Marrin and Berger said that if the Fulton Road facility lost its current licensing they would likely have to spend a fortune on upgrades to get it back.
Lea Brooks, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, which licenses hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities, would not speculate on future requirements if the facility lost its current licensing.
Brooks did say that "if you place a bed in suspense, it means the hospital is not required to upgrade these units to conform with current building codes when the units are re-opened."
Many local mental health professionals fear that closure of the psychiatric unit will put greater pressure on emergency room personnel, as well as law enforcement officers who often come into contact with patients with severe mental problems.
They say that psychiatric patients requiring acute inpatient care will be forced to travel out of county for treatment, a prospect that troubles patients and their families.
Jo Sandersfeld, vice president of mission integration at Memorial, said St. Joseph Health is committed to psychiatric services, such as its Outpatient Behavioral Health Service on College Avenue and emergency psychiatric services at Memorial's emergency room.
The Fulton Road campus opened in 1990 as an 80-bed psychiatric hospital operated by Community Psychiatric Centers. Three years later, Marrin's North Coast Rehabilitation Center bought the psychiatric hospital and expanded care to include physical rehabilitation services.
In 1998, Marrin sold North Coast Rehabilitation Center to St. Joseph Health System, and a few years later he became part owner in the property.
Expanded services
In the past few years, Marrin has been working with architects and local health care professionals on a proposal to expand services at the Fulton Road campus.
Marrin and Berger said they would like to place UCSF's physician residency program on the property. Until last year the program was run by Sutter Health and is now administered by Southwest Community Health Center.
Marrin said that while he supports the need for continued psychiatric services at the Fulton facility, devoting the entire campus to psychiatric services limits his options for expanding general acute care.
Under such a proposal, said Marrin, there would be "no possibility of adding the kinds of hospital services that will complement the family practice residency program to be licensed there, services such as women's health, surgical specialties, obstetrics, etc."
Naomi Fuchs, executive director of Southwest Community Health Center, said such a program would greatly benefit west Santa Rosa.
"It would serve that community tremendously," said Fuchs.
Perez said he would try to keep the Fulton Road urgent care program on the west side of town when the lease runs out next year. But he said expanding acute general care services at Fulton was impractical.
"There'd have to be a huge investment," he said. "There's just no way that somebody is going to make it an acute care hospital."
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