Cone Health plans to open $38.5 mln replacement hospital in Greensboro

Cone Health aims to get the permission of the state regulators to open a $38.5 million replacement hospital in Greensboro dedicated to behavioral-health patients.

The project initially needs the approval of Cone Health’s board of trustees to apply this spring for a certificate-of-need with the N.C. division of health service regulation.

The certificate is needed of any significant health-care infrastructure project, with key criteria whether the proposal will create unnecessary duplication of services within a community or region.

The present behavioral-health hospital is on Walter Reed Drive near Wesley Long Hospital. The hospital will be close to it as well. The aim is to open the replacement hospital in 2016. 

According to Doug Allred, spokesman, “The request includes adding to its current 80-bed capacity, providing services specific to elderly patients and offering more short-term services for acute-care and outpatient stays.”  At  present, the hospital focuses on treating adolescents and adults.  Allred  said, “The current facility was built for stays of 30 days or more.” He adds, “The behavioral-health hospital has about 3,500 impatient admissions annually, with an average length of stay of 51/2 days. He also said, “Additional beds would have to come from the state inventory.” “We have not had those discussions with regulators, so we aren’t mentioning how many we might want.” 

The Cone request is the latest attempt by Triad healthcare providers to increase the services for behavioral-health patients. In June, Forsyth Behavioral Health opened a 24 hour behavioral health outpatient and assessment center that intends to reduce the time patients will have to wait to get services.

The Forsyth Behavioral Health center serves up to 10 patients at a time. It is staffed by psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, counselors and therapists and has private examination rooms, five community-group rooms, and a laboratory.