| 8/1/2005 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Mental health agencies working on proposals to privatize state hospital
From Staff, Wire Servics
Two mental health agencies are putting together proposals for turning over Madison State Hospital to private ownership.
Terry Stawar, president and chief executive officer of LifeSpring Inc. in Jeffersonville, said he is forming a coalition of elected officials, business leaders and other nonprofits to run MSH. LifeSpring is the hospital’s largest single client, Stawar said, with 35 beds allocated to its customers.
Another group is being led by Quinco Behavioral Health Systems of Columbus. Richard Williams, president and CEO of Quinco, said his agency is forming a partnership with the mental health center in Bloomington and a similar entity in Indianapolis.
“Mental health centers that currently feed into our system are considered the appropriate” agencies to take over MSH, Nikki Ciazza Morrell, superintendent of MSH, said today.
MSH is one of three state-run hospitals for mentally ill and developmentally disabled people that the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration plans to privatize. The others are in Richmond and Evansville.
The timetable for seeking proposals from interested groups hasn’t been set, Morrell said.
The first of the three sites could be transferred by next summer, said Brian Carnes, a spokesman for the state agency.
MSH has 140 patients at its 150-bed, brand-new regional mental health center, Morrell said.
Morrell said better medications for the mentally ill and a growing number of community treatment options have diminished the need for long-term residential care. As a result, 60 of the hospital’s 150 beds are now occupied by developmentally disabled patients. She said most of them had been patients at Muscatatuck State Developmental Center, but weren’t transferred to MSH, arriving in Madison after being elsewhere upon their release from now-closed Muscatatuck.
The regional hospital in Madison has more than 400 employees and an annual operating budget of $29 million.
Carnes, the state spokesman, said any group that submits a proposal must offer employees a job that meets their existing salary and benefits.
Even with that assurance, Morrell said it’s a difficult time at the hospital. She welcomes the groups that are interested in running the facility, but said some staff are nervous.
“So many things are unclear at this point,” Morrell said.
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