$8M mental health facility for children planned by OVMC
By SHELLEY HANSON, For The Times LeaderWHEELING - Ohio Valley Medical Center plans to expand its mental health services for children with a new $8 million facility.
On Wednesday, officials learned the hospital may receive $6 million in federal funding that U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va, aims to secure for the project. Byrd is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The funding was included in a Fiscal 2009 bill that still must be debated by the Senate, according to Byrd's office.
Hospital spokeswoman Maggie Espina said the remainder of the money will come from the hospital's operational budget. She noted the 36-bed facility will be constructed on hospital-owned land at 22nd and Eoff streets. It will be an extension of the 14-bed Hillcrest, which is located inside a building on the OVMC campus, 2000 Eoff St.
Hillcrest is owned and operated by the hospital. Another mental health company, Northwood Health Systems, is not owned by OVMC, but it operates from a building beside the hospital, Espina noted.
''The current Ohio Valley Medical Center mental health facility is putting an extra burden on the young patients and their families, and the hospital faculty,'' Byrd said in a news release. ''In order to provide the best care for West Virginians who suffer from mental illness, we must provide the best resources and facilities we can. It is our moral obligation to do so.''
Espina said the hospital has been working with Byrd's office for nearly two years to receive the funding.
''When we started looking at the project, we knew we needed to at least double what we have,'' Espina said of patient capacity.
Between 35 and 40 full-time positions are expected to be created at the facility, including nurses, doctors, therapists and more.
The current facility was constructed in 1973 and was meant to only serve adults. Because of the demand, Hillcrest began to offer children services.
''Families in northern West Virginia who seek behavioral health care services should not have to travel outside their community to find help,'' Byrd said. ''A new facility at Ohio Valley Medical Center would help keep patients close to home, and allow the medical professionals to treat individuals with mental illness more effectively in order to improve their quality of life.''
In a separate announcement Wednesday, hospital officials also said the Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation, which owns both OVMC and East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, is in the middle of refinancing $41 million in outstanding bond debt. Espina noted, however, funding for the new mental health facility is not connected to those bonds.
