The county Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously accepted a plan for a less-expensive behavioral well being facility at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in central San Diego.
In accordance with board Chairman Nathan Fletcher’s workplace, the ability will present extra providers associated to psychological well being and habit remedy. When opened in late 2023, the Central Regional Behavioral Well being Hub will characteristic 44 new acute inpatient beds, a disaster stabilization unit and an emergency psychiatric unit.
Together with an settlement creating the ability, supervisors accepted $3 million in architectural design enhancements to the Alvarado facility. If negotiations are profitable, the county buying and contracting division director can also enter right into a single-source contract with the hospital to deal with Medi-Cal sufferers.
The plan “will enable us to convey on-line the providers we envisioned for the Central Regional Behavioral Well being Hub a lot sooner,” Fletcher mentioned in an announcement. “It additionally provides us the power to create better capability throughout your entire system, as a result of it frees up our sources and permits us to offer extra post-acute and long-term care providers all through the area.”
Situated close to San Diego State College, Alvarado Hospital will function the licensed behavioral well being hub operator. The county will present a well being plan, whereas UC San Diego Health will deal with medical oversight.
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer mentioned all in all, utilizing Alvarado Hospital is a win.
“We’ve all agreed for a very long time that this wanted to maneuver ahead,” she mentioned.
Fletcher mentioned the Alvarado website “is a pivot” from a 2019 proposal to show a county-owned parcel positioned on Third Avenue within the Hillcrest neighborhood right into a behavioral well being facility.
In accordance with Fletcher’s workplace, it will have price virtually $400 million to develop the Hillcrest website, whereas the Alvarado mission has a price ticket of round $130 million.
County employees at the moment are planning to make use of the Third Avenue website to offer long-term care, and subsequent month will assessment knowledge on mattress capability for “the right combination of providers,” in response to Fletcher’s workplace.
Patty Maysent, CEO of the UCSD Well being System, mentioned utilizing Alvarado Hospital “is a really elegant resolution to an issue we’ve been making an attempt to resolve for a while now.”
She mentioned the brand new behavioral well being hub will “make an enormous distinction in psychological well being providers for the neighborhood.”
Metropolis Information Service contributed to this text.
