By Greg Jordan, CNHI West Virginia
BECKLEY — Area leaders and behavioral health care providers are concerned about how the sale of a Raleigh County hospital could impact a neighboring center serving 5,000 to 6,000 people a year across four counties.
In early October, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that Jackie Withrow Hospital in Raleigh County is among four hospitals being sold for $60 million to New York-based developer Marx Development Group. This hospital shares state-owned property with FMRS Health Systems, Inc. in Beckley.
In a letter to Gov. Patrick Morrisey dated Oct. 10, Delegate Carl “Bill” Roop, R- Raleigh, wrote about the concerns citizens had about the sale of Jackie Withrow Hospital and how it could impact FMRS Health System. Roop said the Raleigh County Commission was also sending a letter to the governor.
“The employees of Jacki Withrow are the heart of its operations and must be protected, both in their employment status and in their benefits,” Roop said. “Additionally, I strongly urge that any plans for redevelopment included the construction of a new facility within the same geographic area to ensure continuity of care and service to our community.”
Roop brought out a county tax map showing how the hospital’s 17.3 acres adjoins the FMRS center’s 9.5 acres. He pointed out several smaller FMRS buildings on the same land.
“What we’re asking the governor to consider is cutting this facility out and these are additional buildings that FMRS uses,” Roop told the Register Herald. “We’re asking for this property to be cut out, not to be part of this sale.”
FMRS Systems would have no place to go if the land’s new owner wants the center to move, he said.
“I don’t know of another facility that we have in this area to provide for them. They provide a vital role in our community and I don’t know of a place where they can move,” Roop said. “Now they have been provided what I consider a short-term lease. I don’t believe that’s adequate. I think we need to cut this out and preserve it just the way it is and let them continue on.”
A veterans memorial near FMRS, which is on a site owned by the county, has been deeded to the nonprofit Veterans Memorial Association, Roop said. The city also owns a Little League site next to the hospital’s site.
“Nothing is finalized so I think there still could be this area carved out,” Roop said. “Until the actual deed is signed, I think we still have hope, so we’re still working it. (The governor) is receptive and I think he understands what our concerns are.”
A message to the office of Gov. Patrick Morrisey was unanswered as of Monday.
FMRS Health Systems is one of the state’s original 13 comprehensive behavioral health centers, said Randall R. Venable, CEO of FMRS Health Systems, Inc. It serves 5,000 to 6,000 unique individuals a year in an area including the counties of Fayette, Monroe, Raleigh and Summers. FMRS Heath Systems also employs around 250 employees across all four counties.
FMRS Health Systems is legislatively defined, so there’s an entity like it in all 55 counties, Venable said.
“We are the comprehensive behavior health centers that are tasked with being the provider of last resort; but also being that gatekeeper for involuntary hospitalizations and providing that treatment for folks who may not have other means to get that treatment,” he said. “We do have a new designation, though: Certified Community Behavioral Health Center, CCBHC.”
Certified Community Behavior Health Center is a federal designation, so the state developed a certification process for them, Venable said. FMRS Health Systems is one of one six CCBHCs in West Virginia.
“We were actually the first one,” he said. “What that is is basically a comprehensive one-stop shop for behavioral health and integrated primary care services as well that include crisis services, substance abuse disorder treatment, mobile crisis response, we do a crisis stabilization unit; pretty much everything related to behavioral health and substance abuse disorder treatment.”
Like Roop, Venable said that FMRS Health Systems stands on state property. Its first lease was done in 1973, plus there are several buildings across the state which look exactly like it.
“They were all built, I think, with federal money for the specific purpose of operating the comprehensive behavioral health centers,” he said. “That original lease that all of us had, 99-year lease, basically for a minimal amount of money, something like a dollar a year or something like that; but the responsibility we had was to provide those comprehensive behavioral health services. And we were responsible mostly for the upkeep and maintenance of the facilities and the buildings. Over the years we’ve put quite a bit of financial resources into these buildings to make sure they’re modernized and keep them up.”
“So when the state long-term care facilities up for sale on the market, I’m not sure there was a realization or not that our buildings are also on the same grounds, the same property as the Jackie Withrow long-term care facility,” Venable said.
The best-case scenario would be to have the property transferred to FMRS, Venable said. The sale has not been finalized, but under the current arrangement, the buyers would be acquiring the land FMRS occupies as well as the hospital.
“So even though we had that original 99-year lease in 1973, that lease was updated and changed to where it’s basically a year-to-year lease,” he said. “The language in that was they can give us a 30-day notice which as long as it was state-owned property that wasn’t a concern. Legislation mandates that every county have a comprehensive behavioral health center and so it’s in the state’s best interest that we continue to be able to operate here. That may or may not be the case with a private entity that buys the property.”
Venable said moving FMRS Health Systems would be challenging because he did not know of another location which could accommodate all the services it provides the four counties. The center provides more than the outpatient clinic.
“We have very comprehensive, intense community-based services for that population that we’re trying to keep out of the hospital, keep the community,” he said. “The crisis residential programs. We have a lot of adolescent speciality programs, the children’s services; so it would certainly be a challenge to figure out where we may have to build something at quite an expense.”
Moving the Raleigh County facility would impact the smaller, more rural counties which FMRS serves, Venable said.
“It would certainly put us in a very difficult spot to try and maintain the continuity of the services that we offer here,” he said. “And to be honest, the waterfall effect could be difficult because when you’re trying to operate services in really small counties like Monroe and Summers, they typically don’t cover their costs and so you have to depend on the volume of a county like this office to be able to basically cost shift and cover the costs of the services that you’re providing in those more rural counties. It would certainly be a challenge.”
Roop also said that having FMRS Health Systems own its site would be a good arrangement. If this transfer cannot be done, then transfer it to Raleigh County or the city of Beckley.