The center recently increased the amount of patient beds from 32 to the full 64 patient beds it was designed to accommodate in its final phase. The facility also boosted staffing from 200 to 280 employees to accommodate an increase in patients, both adult patients and adolescents 11 years old and older.
John Kennedy, chief medical officer, said the expansion has been a tremendous benefit for the center, which is affiliated with the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
“It’s always very difficult to tell the referring community that you’re full for a variety of reasons,” he said. “This radically cuts down the number of times we have to say that.”
Kennedy said the decision to expand to full capacity was based upon close monitoring of average daily census numbers. “We were at our capacity for weeks on end and unable to admit someone unless we had discharged someone,” he said.
In addition, the center was accepted on June 19 as a psychiatric hospital in the Medicare program by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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