Hospital will continue with existing treatment for the mentally ill

Sept. 13--Dr. Pete Rutherford, CEO at Confluence Health, said Friday that a recent state Supreme Court ruling won't affect how the hospital treats mentally ill patients who are being detained because they are a threat to themselves or others.

"These patients are in this community and there is nowhere for them to go, and we have a commitment to this community," Rutherford said. "There is nobody else to do it so we are doing the best we can with it."

Rutherford said Confluence Health officials this summer met with local court officials, including prosecutors for Chelan and Douglas counties, and were told that the hospital's treatment plan for seriously mentally ill patients was legal. Court hearings, with a Superior Court judge present, are held at the hospital to make sure state detention guidelines are being met, he said.

At Central Washington Hospital, severely mentally ill patients are being seen by a psychiatric nurse practitioner who makes a diagnosis and develops a treatment plan. A psychiatrist will be available if needed.

Rutherford said mentally ill patients are not being cared for long-term, in the emergency room. That situation has been the subject of a lawsuit and state Supreme Court ruling banning a practice called "psychiatric boarding."

Late last month, the Court agreed to give the state more time to find beds in psychiatric hospitals for mentally ill patients who have been involuntarily committed because they were a danger to themselves or others. The new deadline is Dec. 26.

The numbers of seriously mentally ill patients detained at Central Washington Hospital had been one or two at a time until the past couple of years, when the number rose to four to five at a time. Those numbers have declined again in the past few months.

Rutherford declined to say why he thinks those numbers have declined.

It's been eight months since Catholic Family and Child Services began administering care for mentally ill patients. Previously, another organization had administered that care.

Over the past 18 months, Confluence Health has been billing the Chelan-Douglas Regional Support Network for mentally ill patients' care. Previously, the cost had been absorbed through Confluence Health's charity care program.

Rutherford said new internal financial controls prompted the change in billing procedures. He said the beds used by mentally ill patients at Central Washington Hospital do not count against the 14-bed maximum limit of patients from Chelan and Douglas counties who are using beds at Eastern State Hospital.

Confluence Health is also finishing up the remodeling of a medical wing in the old hospital, which is connected to the new tower. That wing will contain 20 beds, of which eight will be available for mentally ill patients, Rutherford said. Among the amenities of those eight rooms will be windows that allow staff to view patients from the hallway.

That part of the wing won't be a full-blown psychiatric care area, however. Rutherford said Confluence Health officials have decided not to go that route because of cost, the type of services that "we can realistically supply in this community," and community needs.

The remodeled area should be done by the end of this month.

It should help alleviate problems with a full house throughout the hospital.

"We've been running relatively full and, on certain days, have not been able to take transfers from outlying hospitals because we didn't have a bed," Rutherford said.

Reach Dee Riggs at 509-664-7147 or deeriggs@wenatcheeworld.com.

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