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Round up: A look
at inpatient psychiatry
in New England
VERMONT
(May
2005 Issue)
In February, Gov. Jim Douglas called to accelerate plans to close
Vermont State Hospital and develop a new system. His announcement
came shortly after the state was notified the hospital would be
decertified by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) for the second time in recent years. The decertification,
would result in removal of federal support of about $1.4 million
in fiscal year 2005 and $1.7 million for fiscal year 2006. The decertification
followed incidents involving the unsupervised departure of two patients.
Under the state's new plan, the current structure would change
to a more community based network of care, with the current state
hospital replaced with a newly constructed facility in three years,
according to Paul Jarris, M.D., commissioner of health for the Vermont
Agency of Human Services.
In recent months, the hospital has begun to move residents out
of the facility, which averaged a daily census of about 50 prior
to losing its federal certification. Since the governor's plan to
accelerate the closing was announced, several patients were taken
in by other facilities in the state including Fletcher Allen Health
Care and Brattleboro Retreat.
Views remain divided on the closure of the hospital. In March,
the Vermont State Employees' Association asked a federal administrative
law judge to examine the practices of CMS, the agency that decertified
the hospital. VSEA also demanded that the hospital be recertified.
In other news in the past year, work is underway on a large-scale
renovation and enhancement at Fletcher Allen Health Care, which
has locations in Burlington and Colchester.
As part of the "Renaissance Project," an inpatient psychiatric
component is currently being built that will expand the facility's
patient capacity.
Mike Noble, hospital spokesman, says the psychiatric unit should
be completed by fall. An open house and dedication ceremony will
likely be held in early September; patients will likely be moved
into the facility later that month.
Noble says in the current facility, many of the rooms are double-bedded
rooms, which has been a problem because of gender or illness issues.
"That allowed us to handle far fewer people than we will in the
new unit, where only two units are double-bedded units," Noble says.
"So our capacity goes up a great deal, even with the same numbers
of beds, with that configuration."
Noble says the facility typically has anywhere from 14 to 18 residents,
even though the number of beds is almost twice that amount.
"We're limited" because of the double-bedded rooms, he says. But
when the new facility is ready, "our capacity will go up to almost
28," Noble says, because the majority are single rooms.
Pamela Berard
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