The board of the Juan F. Luis Memorial Hospital on Thursday approved a $100,000 expenditure to transfer the six patients in its Behavioral Health Unit to a Florida hospital while the St. Croix facility is renovated and expanded.
The five-hour board meeting was highlighted by an appearance of the patients’ families and friends, and by concerned members of the mental health community, who said while they support the planned changes to the hospital’s psychiatric unit, they are unhappy that the patients have to be transferred off the island.
The hospital announced Nov. 2 that it would close the six-bed unit for approximately 90 days, planning to reopen it in February in time for an inspection by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency which determines eligibility to participate in Medicare and Medicaid.
The renovation is expected to cost about $500,000, the board was told, and will include adding two beds for minors, and adding staff with specific qualifications for working in a psychiatric unit.
"There were some concerns that we don’t have the perfect or the ideal complement of staff to ensure quality patient care," Board Chairwoman Kye Walker said after the meeting. "One thing we’re doing, during the 90 days the unit is closed, is to make sure we have the right staff there."
Walker said the JFL board approved the $100,000 with a hospital in Fort Lauderdale to provide services to the patients, in essence guaranteeing that the service will be paid for. Insurance or Medicare also will be billed for the patients who have them,
Hospital Chief Executive Officer Jeff Nelson acknowledged that temporarily relocating the patients to Florida will be a hardship for the families, but that the scope of the work needed will not allow them to stay at JFL. Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas is willing to take St. Croix patients when it can, but it is over capacity at the moment and has no space.
Walker and Nelson both emphasized that Schneider did not turn down JFL patients. It simply doesn’t have room for any right now, but is open to accepting them in the future as space opens up.
Nelson likened the situation to two years ago when, under CMS order, the hospital reduced the patient load of its dialysis unit, causing a short-term hardship for patients. In the long term, he said, the dialysis unit not only was able to meet CMS standards, but has achieved the highest rankings by the monitoring agency, providing St. Croix patients with as good dialysis care as is available anywhere.
"We put enough time and money and effort into it that we can provide the best service anywhere," he said. "We’re going to do that for (the behavioral health unit.)"
Walker said the decision to temporarily close the unit was recommended by the hospital administrative and medical staff, and approved by board members.
Planning is under way, and the hospital is under a tight deadline. But Nelson said the needs of the patients and their families will not be overlooked.
"This is very much a patient-centered and a family-centered process," he said.
And while the planning and work is under way, the hospital will recruit a staff "specifically trained to meet the needs of the patients," Walker said.
The project will be paid primarily through the hospital’s improved bottom line. During the meeting’s financial report, Walker said, the board learned that even though patient admissions were down in October, gross revenues actually increase by more than 30 percent, indicating that the steps that have been taken – raising rates and more aggressive collections – have been paying off.
There is also a measure pending before the V.I. Senate to provide both JFL and Schneider with money for capital expenditures, which might be available for this project, Walker said.
