OU Health Starts $141M Project; $71M Psychiatric Hospital To Open In Florida

OU Health breaks ground on $141M pediatric behavioral health center

University of Oklahoma-affiliated system, OU Health, broke ground on a new 82-bed behavioral health project on Nov. 1. The facility will cost about $141 million and serve the pediatric population.

It will be named the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health Behavioral Health Center and be built adjacent to the children’s hospital in Oklahoma City.

The two-story, 173,000-square-foot facility will offer inpatient, short-term stabilization and long-term care across 72 beds. The children’s hospital itself will add a 10-bed emergency room expansion for psychiatric services, according to a news release.

Advertisement

Other services will include intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs.

The children’s hospital emergency room expansion will open in February 2024. The new behavioral health center will be operational by December 2026.

The Oklahoma state legislature and the University Hospitals Authority and Trust have dedicated $106 million to the project.

Advertisement

“The creation of the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health Behavioral Health Center is a major achievement for the state,” Oklahoma First Lady Sarah Stitt told The Journal Record. “Many patients and families simply cannot find the care they need in Oklahoma right now. The behavioral health center will fill that gap by providing access and the expertise to treat a range of conditions.”

Stitt will serve as honorary chair of the effort to raise the remaining funds needed to finance the project.

Sarasota, Florida, hospital to open $71M all-ages psychiatric hospital 

On Dec. 1, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System will open its new “behavioral health pavilion,” located next to its flagship hospital, Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

The facility features 74 beds serving pediatric, adult and geriatric patients. Each population will have its own unit. The facility also features a 22-bed acute care unit.

The three-story, 95,000-square-foot facility cost an estimated $71 million and was backed by private and public funding. Brian Cornell and Martha Cornell contributed $10 million to the project, according to a news release. Brian Cornell is the CEO of retailer Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT).

The facility replaces Sarasota Memorial’s Bayside Center for Behavioral Health, which was built in the 1970s. It will be called the Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion.

Outpatient services in the facility will include counseling, intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs and a 24-hour assessment center.

Arkansas Children’s to build $70M opioid research-focused pediatric center

The Arkansas Attorney General’s office awarded $50 million to the nonprofit organization Arkansas Children’s to develop a research center that focuses on the impact of opioid use disorder on children before and after birth.

The funds come from opioid legal settlement funds, according to a news release. These funds are increasingly reaching states and local communities to address the impact of the opioid crisis.

The facility will be called the National Center for Opioid Research & Clinical Effectiveness (NCOR).

“This research center will be the first of its kind not just in Arkansas but in the entire country,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a news release. “It will put our state on the front line of saving future generations from the scourge of opioid addiction and on the map as the center for pediatric opioid research in the United States.”

Arkansas Children’s will develop the facility, focusing on cutting-edge research infrastructure to support clinical and social teams that address prenatal and neonatal opioid exposure.

Construction will begin in 2024 on a 45,000-square-foot facility on the Arkansas Children’s Little Rock campus. It will work with the existing Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center.

Oceans Healthcare moves to take over 83 psych beds from closed hospital unit

Plano, Texas-based Oceans Healthcare is looking to acquire and reopen 77 of the 83 psychiatric beds shuttered by St. Dominic Memorial Hospital.

Part of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS), the hospital shuttered the beds in June “after a thorough assessment of our staffing and services and following losses of several million dollars in the last 3-5 years.” The closure is indicative of a tumultuous operating environment in the psychiatric hospital space.

Mississippi Today reports Oceans Healthcare is seeking approval to obtain the bed license from state regulators. It applied to them in late October.

Oceans Healthcare operates four sites of service in Mississippi — two hospitals and two outpatient locations, according to its website.

Ideal Option opens 19 new clinics in 2023 so far, 5 in the last month

Kennewick, Washington-based addiction treatment provider Ideal Option has announced the opening of 19 new clinics in 2023.

In the last month, it has announced locations in Spokane, Washington; Albany, Oregon; Monroe, Washington; Baltimore; and Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The company is backed by the private equity firm Varsity Healthcare Partners. It was founded in 2012. The company focuses on medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

It now operates 90 locations in nine states, according to a news release.

Ideal Option also targets rural or other underserved communities. Its new Spokane, Washington, facility will care for up to 100 patients a day, making it the largest of its kind in that community.
Several outpatient-focused addiction treatment providers are adding to their clinic footprint.This is emblematic of one of two major models for growing private equity-backed behavioral health platform companies.

Companies featured in this article:

, , , , , ,