Rendering by Johnson Johnson Crabtree Architects, Nashville

Mercy Medical Center-Des Moines will be adding 100 mental health beds in Iowa. 

The Iowa Health Facilities Council today unanimously approved Mercy’s request to construct a 100-bed inpatient behavioral health hospital in Clive. 

The new hospital will be built on a vacant site owned by Mercy on 114th Street in Clive across from its recently opened Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital. It will be owned and operated through a joint venture organization created by Mercy and Universal Health Services, a for-profit health care management company that operates similar facilities in 37 other states. 

The five-person board made its decision following heartfelt presentations by mental health providers and community advocates, who cited incidents of patients often waiting days in hospital emergency rooms for a scarce mental health bed to open up, often two or three hours’ drive away. 

“We want to thank the council,” said Sandy Swanson, Mercy’s vice president of planning and business development, after about two hours of testimony heard at the Des Moines Area Community College campus in Ankeny. “We certainly appreciate their careful deliberation and consideration of the project and then their ultimate approval.

“I would also say that Mercy is incredibly grateful for the overwhelming community support that we had leading up to today, and here presenting today in support of the project. That is really what carries the day — the voice of the patient of the provider is what’s most important to us.” 

No one was present at the hearing to voice opposition to the proposed hospital, which last month was the subject of safety concerns by some Clive residents at a community meeting. Swanson said that in the 20 years that Mercy operated its Mercy Franklin behavioral health facility in Des Moines, “there were never any incidents” that would endanger neighboring residents. Similarly, a UHS official said that in her company’s experience in operating hundreds of facilities, there have been no dangerous incidents. 

Sen. Charles Grassley has raised concerns over the past two years about what he termed “a disturbing trend of behavior” by UHS, as reported in a series of investigative articles by BuzzFeed about physical abuse of patients at UHS facilities. 

Karen Johnson, senior vice president for clinical services for UHS, acknowledged to the health facilities council there are ongoing investigations, but said after five years “there have yet to be any detrimental findings, or lawsuits.” 

As disclosed by the publicly traded company in regulatory filings, UHS is currently under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as U.S. Department of Justice. 

According to an SEC filing, the Department of Justice has advised the company it is subject to a  False Claims Act investigation focused on billings submitted to government payors in relation to services provided at certain facilities. Earlier this year the company increased a pre-tax reserve to $35 million in connection with the civil aspects of these matters, it said. 

“After a year of investigation, we are confident UHS will provide the level of quality expected by Mercy,” Swanson told the council. 

The 100 additional beds will add to the mix of 34 adult and children’s behavioral health beds that Mercy has at its main campus in Des Moines, which will be kept open and will be operated by the Mercy-Universal Health joint venture.  

Preliminary plans for the 73,300-square-foot facility call for an outpatient and administrative wing separated from an inpatient wing by two courtyards. The facility will also feature a two-story gymnasium for recreational activities by patients, along with an outdoor playground for children who are patients. The facility will provide separate units for child, adolescent and adult patients. 

Mercy estimates the facility will serve residents from 43 Iowa counties, with Polk, Dallas and Warren counties making up the primary service area. Mercy and UHS will share governance of the joint venture through equal representation on a six-member board, although Mercy will control the hospital’s policies, including a policy that all patients will be accepted regardless of their ability to pay, officials said. 

The joint venture will also operate a mobile crisis team that will support emergency departments, schools, the courts, nursing homes and other venues in Greater Des Moines. The hospital will also provide tele-assessments by psychiatrists to assist places such as schools and clinics that need someone to be assessed for treatment. 

Iowa hospitals currently have a total of 259 mental health beds, or approximately 19 per every 100,000 residents, compared with the recommended 50 beds per 100,000 population recommended by mental health experts. By that measure, Iowa is short by more than 440 beds, which translates to about 35,000 Iowans who don’t have access to the inpatient services they need, according to Mercy’s presentation. 

Mercy plans to finance the building through a real estate investment trust, with the joint venture leasing the building from the REIT on a 20-year lease. 

Now that the health facilities council has approved the project, Mercy will engage an architect and develop a site plan to submit to the city of Clive for approval, Swanson said. She said the site is already properly zoned for use as a hospital. 

“We hope to begin construction in early 2019, and would look to finish in early 2020,” she said.