Colorado’s only psychiatric hospital west of the Front Range will close in two weeks, with its board blaming financial difficulties and an inability to fill enough beds.
West Springs Hospital, in Grand Junction, will close March 10, but outpatient and detox services on its campus will remain open.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the upcoming closure of West Springs Hospital. This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the profound impact it will have on our patients, staff and community,” the hospital’s board of directors said in a statement Monday.
West Springs will assist patients who aren’t ready to go home in transferring to another inpatient facility, the board said. Patients who aren’t ready to step down to a lower care level would likely need to move to hospitals along the Front Range or in Salt Lake City.
The Grand Junction hospital employs more than 200 people, most of whom will lose their jobs.
The announcement followed a decision by the board not to take immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who were in a mental health or addiction crisis. The board’s statement didn’t reference the proposal to treat detainees, which interim CEO Nicholas Torres said could have brought millions of dollars into the hospital.
West Springs’ parent organization, Mind Springs Health , had planned for a small hospital chain in Florida, Larkin Health, to essentially take over the hospital’s operations. The two organizations won’t move forward with an affiliation, since the hospital is closing, the board’s statement said.
The hospital had struggled financially, and would have faced additional challenges from possible state and federal cuts to Medicaid, the statement said. Also, it typically only filled 30 of its 48 licensed beds, which didn’t bring in enough revenue to sustain the facility.
Hospitals in Colorado are facing financial challenges, especially since as many as 500,000 people may have dropped off Medicaid despite remaining eligible, said Julie Lonborg, senior vice president and chief of staff for the Colorado Hospital Association. Caring for an increasing number of uninsured patients has increased financial strain, she said.
“Colorado needs more behavioral health resources not fewer, which is something West Springs knows very well,” she said in a statement. “We are sure this was a difficult decision to make and careful consideration was taken to arrive at this difficult decision.”
In April, then-CEO John Sheehan said the hospital could close because of a dispute with Medicaid contractor Rocky Mountain Health Plans, which alleged West Springs owed it for excess payments over time. The two sides reached a deal in May, but didn’t disclose its terms.
The hospital could eventually treat patients again as a crisis stabilization unit or acute treatment unit, the board said. Crisis stabilization units can treat people who aren’t in law enforcement custody for up to one week, while acute treatment units can take patients, including those brought in by police, for up to two weeks. Both generally allow patients more freedom than a psychiatric hospital does.
“We are exploring more modern care models that would meet the need for acute mental health care support,” board chair Carlos Cornejo said in a news release.
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