Mandeville mental health hospital now under private management ...

With the start of the new year, the hospital that for six decades made Mandeville synonymous with psychiatric care will have a new name and management structure. Under an agreement signed in early December, a Florida company on Wednesday formally assumed control of Southeast Louisiana Hospital near Mandeville, which will now operate under the name Northlake Behavioral Health System.

The changeover marks a major milestone in the facility's contentious conversion from a state-run mental health care hospital to a privately-managed property with oversight from the state Department of Health and Hospitals. Under last month's agreement, the DHH gave St. Tammany Parish authority to manage all property at the Southeast campus just east of Mandeville and signed a separate agreement to allow Meridian Behavioral Healthcare of Fort Lauderdale to operate 58 psychiatric inpatient beds: 42 for youths and 16 for adults. Another agreement between the parish and Meridian allows the health care company to operate the 58 beds on the Southeast campus.

The three-year agreement allows DHH to closely monitor operations at the hospital. The undertaking is the first of its kind for Meridian, which has been in business for about one year, officials said.

Meridian has announced the appointments of three executives to run the mental health facility, including Richard Kramer as chief operating officer. Kramer has been

CEO of Southeast Louisiana Hospital since 2010 and has more than 15 years experience in behavioral health hospital administration, according to Meridan's website. Over the past year, Kramer has also served as DHH's Director of Hospital Services under the Office of Behavioral Health.

Georgia Johnson has been appointed Northlake's Director of Nursing, and Sharon Taylor as the Director of Human Resources. Johnson, who has been director of nursing at SELH for the past five years, will be joining Northlake and Meridian with over 40 years experience in behavioral health nursing. She is a Clinical Nurse Specialist and is the current President of the Northshore Nurses Association. Taylor has more than 25 years of executive level experience in Human Resources in the public and private sectors. She has been a Director of Human Resources with DHH since 2005.

In a press release, Meridian CEO Wesley E. Mason said he is pleased with the new management team. "Each of these highly regarded professionals has been with DHH for a significant portion of their careers, and their acute understanding of the current SELH hospital operations, as well as the clients served here, will be invaluable to ensuring a smooth transition of the hospital to Meridian's management."

Meridian officials said the company met with more than 300 of SELH's employees who expressed interest in employment opportunities at the new privately-operated Northlake. Meridian anticipated that over 90 percent of the Northlake workforce will be comprised of individuals who are current SELH hospital employees and that full time employment offers will be made to around 150 individuals. In its heyday, SELH employed some 500 people.

But as the facility morphs into a private business, an organization formed to keep the hospital under the auspices of the state plans to continue its fight this weekend. The Committee to Save Southeast Louisiana Hospital will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. Saturday at Mandeville City Hall. The committee is calling on the state and St. Tammany Parish to release documents related to the privitazation of SELH.

The group is also calling on the state to provide unspecified compensation to all SELH employees, who have "undergone painful psychological and material stresses" over the past six months, according to a news release from the committee.

Facing reductions in federal money for Medicaid, DHH announced in July that it would close SELH, a move they said would save $1.6 million this fiscal year and $3.5 million in subsequent years. The state health department has said it wants to ensure a sustainable behavioral care system for the future by de-emphasizing the role of large public institutions and instead building partnerships with community providers.

The announcement prompted a strong backlash from local officials, hospital staff members and patients' families. The immediate formation of the committee helped stoke the issue, with the group holding public rallies at the hospital and at offices of elected officials. Local legislators, many of whom are close allies of Gov. Bobby Jindal, began a push for privatization as a way of saving the services and jobs provided by the hospital. Hospital supporters, meanwhile, said they favored keeping the hospital in public hands and viewed privatization as a less desirable alternative. They feared private companies might be more concerned with profits than with the needs of the patients.

Source: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/01/mandeville_mental_health_hospi_1.html

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