New hospital for mental health and addiction services in Butler County


Community open house

How to go

WHAT: Beckett Springs Hospital, offering mental health and addiction treatment services, opens Tuesday. The open house will have guided tours of the facility, refreshments, and an art exhibit thanks to National Alliance on Mental Illness of Butler County

WHERE: 8614 Shepherd Farm Dr., West Chester Twp.

TIME: Open house is 4 to 7 p.m. Monday

HOW: Stop by anytime during open house hours

Contact: 513-942-9500

Website: www.beckettsprings.com

The eighth hospital serving Butler County opens its doors Tuesday. Beckett Springs Hospital is a 48-bed hospital for mental health and addiction services opening this week in West Chester Twp. and serving the whole Cincinnati market.

The hospital, located at 8614 Shepherd Farm Drive, off Union Centre Boulevard, will offer inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization — where patients come to the hospital four or five days a week, six hours a day, but leave at the end of the day — and intensive outpatient or same-day services to adults and seniors.

A patient’s average length of stay will be between 7 to 10 days.

Beckett Springs’ services are for “someone who’s life has been pretty disrupted by either behavioral problems, psychiatric problems, or addiction problems,” said David Polunas, the hospital’s chief executive officer. “They might be depressed, they might be bipolar, they might be psychotic or they might have an addiction problem or a combination.”

The Cincinnati metropolitan area is underserved for behavioral health services, Polunas said.

“There are a number of hospital-based programs in the central Cincinnati area, but they typically run at capacity, so access is a problem,” he said. “We’re attempting to alleviate that by opening up 48 beds here.”

Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is the only other hospital and health center in the Cincinnati region dedicated solely to mental health services.

But Lindner Center has a wider focus than Beckett Springs including research, diagnosis and adolescent services, Polunas said. Beckett Springs is focused strictly on adult treatment.

Addiction services, including inpatient detoxification services for drugs and alcohol, and services to treat co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders, will be a big part of what the new West Chester Twp. hospital does, he said. That includes medication-assisted treatment using Suboxone for opiate addictions, he said.

Opiates are highly addictive drugs such as heroin and medications like Vicodin, Percocet and Oxycontin. The level of addiction to heroin and prescription drugs has reached epidemic proportions in Ohio.

Statewide, a record 1,765 people died in 2011 from unintentional drug overdoses.

Suboxone, an alternative to methadone, is a U.S.-government approved drug for treating symptoms of opiate withdrawal.

Beckett Springs does not offer emergency services, but has intake services around-the-clock. Patients or referring medical professionals can call 513-942-9500.

As the hospital gets its Medicare certification, it will offer specialized services for senior mental health services.

These types of psychiatric services have been a victim of funding cuts.

“Over the last 10 years in the country, 40 percent of the inpatient behavioral health beds, psychiatric beds, were closed for funding reasons, for insurance reimbursement reasons. The demand hasn’t gone away and the need hasn’t gone away,” Polunas said.

“I think there’s a strong understanding or realization that the lack of services hasn’t meant that the population’s gone away. They’re ending up on the street, they’re ending up in jails, they’re ending up in the emergency department, the court system, and that’s not an appropriate place to provide treatment,” he said.

Beckett Springs is owned by Springstone Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky. After Beckett Springs, Springstone will have opened five mental health hospitals including one in the Columbus area. Two more hospitals are in development in Texas.

Beckett Springs accepts commercial insurance, Medicare and self-payment.

The hospitals serving Butler County are: Middletown’s Atrium Medical Center, Fort Hamilton Hospital, Mercy Health — Fairfield Hospital, Oxford’s McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, Hamilton’s TriHealth Bethesda Butler Hospital, West Chester Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus and now Beckett Springs.

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