SolutionHealth is partnering with Acadia Healthcare to build a 144-bed mental health hospital in southeast New Hampshire. It has not chosen the exact location. (Courtesy | SolutionHealth)
Plans to build a new 144-bed behavioral health hospital in the southeastern part of the state have taken a step forward. That’s a bit bigger than the 120-bed proposal the state announced this spring.
SolutionHealth announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Acadia Healthcare, based in Tennessee, to build the $60 million hospital.
As of March, Acadia operated a network of 250 behavioral health care facilities with approximately 11,100 beds in 39 states and Puerto Rico, SolutionHealth said in a statement. It employs approximately 23,000 and serves more than 75,000 patients daily, the statement said. Its facilities include inpatient psychiatric hospitals, specialty treatment facilities, residential treatment centers, and outpatient clinics.
The project has been in the works since at least this spring, when state officials agreed to invest $15 million in pandemic assistance in the new hospital.
When the Department of Health and Human Services asked the Executive Council in March to approve the spending, it cited the dozens of people languishing in hospital emergency rooms across the state, all seeking care for a mental health crisis.
On July 3, the most recent data available, there were 29 adults waiting in an emergency room; that number represents only those being held for involuntary commitment because of danger concerns, not all adults seeking crisis care.
SolutionHealth has not chosen a location for the new hospital, other than to say it will be in the southeastern part of the state. “Our plan is to secure a location and begin the building process as soon as possible, with the goal to open the facility as early as 2025,” said spokesperson Kelly Scargill in an email.
“We continue to see long-term boarding of patients in our emergency rooms – rooms that are not equipped for long-term care needs – due to the lack of hospital beds and facilities that are properly equipped and staffed to care for patients in need of specialized services,” said Dr. Greg Baxter, president and CEO of Elliot Health System, which is part of SolutionHealth, in a statement. “These patients deserve the best care and a more healing environment.”
In October 2021, the department used $15 million in federal money to buy Hampstead Hospital, a behavioral health hospital for children 3 to 18.
This story is courtesy of NH Bulletin under creative commons license. No changes have been made to the article.
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