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Advocate plans $20 million investment to meet 'growing need' for mental health services in the south suburbs

The SouthtownStar - 6/16/2022

Jun. 16—Advocate Aurora Health said Thursday it will invest $20 million to open a 27-bed inpatient behavioral health unit at its South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest.

Once completed in late 2023, it will also consolidate inpatient behavioral health services from Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Officials of the health system said they are taking other steps to integrate mental health services in primary care offices in the south and southwest suburbs.

The company said it will shift labor and delivery operations at South Suburban to Christ as of Aug. 1, although prenatal and postpartum services will continue to be available at the Hazel Crest facility.

In a note to employees Thursday announcing the changes, Rashard Johnson, South Suburban's president, said Advocate Aurora's community needs assessment "made clear there is a growing need for greater access to mental health services across the south suburbs."

Johnson told the Daily Southtown the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the need for mental health care, particularly in Black and brown communities.

"We want to expand access to care, we want to advance health equity," he said.

The inpatient behavioral health unit at Christ is licensed for 41 beds and has staffing for about 24 of them, according to Pete Carlson, president of behavioral health for Advocate Aurora. It's anticipated that doctors and nurses in that unit would relocate to South Suburban, he said.

Advocate Aurora has seen a steady decline in the number of deliveries at South Suburban, officials said.

Since 2015, the number of babies born at the Hazel Crest hospital has decreased 40%, and the hospital averages a bit more than two births per day, Johnson said.

Factors contributing to the decline include a rising median age of residents in the areas South Suburban serves and "women and families making different decisions about having children," Johnson said.

South Suburban will continue to provide prenatal and outpatient maternity care, have an obstetrics-gynecology nurse available around the clock to meet emergency needs and make plans to provide expectant mothers and family members transportation to Christ on the day of their delivery.

Christ Medical Center has 56 obstetrics beds and no physical changes will be needed to accommodate South Suburban patients, Johnson said.

South Suburban has 16 birthing rooms and that space will be repurposed for medical/surgical uses, he said.

Existing medical/surgical space at the hospital will be converted for the mental health unit.

Advocate Aurora officials said they expect approval for the project before the end of this year from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

Carlson and Johnson said Advocate Aurora is integrating behavioral health care in its primary care offices, with a pilot program that now includes its Orland Park office with plans to expand that to other Southland clinics. South Suburban currently has no inpatient beds allocated for mental health care.

It's intended to extend mental health care to "those individuals who may not seek services themselves or follow through on a physician referral," Johnson said.

Carlson said "patients will generally tell their primary care physician they are having mental health issues" and the pilot program will hopefully connect more patients needing those services with doctors and other Advocate Aurora professionals.

"This expansion of mental health services will allow us to fill a vital need in the communities we serve for years to come," Johnson told hospital staff.

It was not immediately clear how many job losses there will be with the shift of labor and delivery from South Suburban to Christ, but a spokesman for Advocate Aurora said the company will work to find comparable jobs for affected employees elsewhere within its Chicago area hospital system, and that it anticipates more jobs being created as a result of the new behavioral health services unit.

mnolan@tribpub.com

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