Franklin, Tennessee-based diversified behavioral health provider Summit BHC recently launched the initial phase of a new, dedicated outpatient services line.
The company has branded it Everest Outpatient Services. The company’s 37 residential and inpatient addiction treatment and psychiatric facilities have always had corresponding outpatient services. However, the provider was largely focused on aftercare services for those discharged from the more intensive facility-based programs.
Now, Summit BHC is offering dedicated outpatient services and establishing a standardized protocol and spectrum of services at all existing and to-come locations, regardless of previous engagement with the company’s facilities.
The new line required significant investment. This included the build-out of new local and corporate leadership to establish and provide oversight to the newly minted Everest Outpatient Services. Brittany Sperry, Summit BHC’s vice president of outpatient services, joined the company in the summer of 2022. Since then, she has worked with the rest of the leadership to build out the business and technology infrastructure to ensure the new line is sustainable.
“I think that our executive leadership team has made it very clear that they’re willing to invest whatever it takes to meet the need, and there’s not a ceiling for that,” Sperry told Behavioral Health Business in an interview. “So we’re continuing to invest. We are trying to do clinics that are complementary to the current footprint and existing services we have, but also totally new footprints.”
The move is also a response to market opportunities and community needs. Summit BHC has seen a 50% increase in requests for outpatient services over the past 12 months, Sperry said.
The company has grown its outpatient location count, each with varying levels and types of care, from about 20 two years ago to 36 locations today. Each offers a continuum of services, including intensive outpatient programs (IOP) and partial hospitalization programs (PHP).
By the end of the year, Everest Outpatient Services plans to operate in 23 states, three of which will be new state markets for Summit BHC. It also plans to add more locations.
“With Everest’s outpatient service network and aggressive plans for this integrated, patient-centric service line, Summit is furthering its mission to provide accessible, high-quality behavioral healthcare across the entire continuum of care while improving all the lives we are privileged to touch,” Brent Turner, Summit BHC CEO, said in a statement.
Summit BHC uses state-of-origin data from intake and the states where patients are discharged to when selecting which states to expand Everest Outpatient Services, Sperry said.
Additional investments include hiring several new direct support and administrative staff, creating alumni services for outpatient service “graduates” and dedicated clinical directors for each outpatient location.
Maintaining patient rapport is also a motivator for the move. Summit BHC has opted to take on a spectrum of standardized residential and outpatient care to ensure patient continuity of care, lessening the potential for patients to get lost in the transition of care.
“We’re really focused on treating the patients and communities as a whole, and meeting them where they’re at,” Sperry said. “We are making the lower level of care more accessible, which is what the community is asking for.”
Summit BHC is backed by the private equity firm Patient Square Capital, which acquired the company at the end of 2021.
