Editor, Commonwealth:
It is exciting to hear that Leflore County Supervisor Sam Abraham realizes the great need for an inpatient psychiatric treatment facility and has taken on a project to get Leflore County one.
This would finally name Greenwood Leflore Hospital a regional hospital, since this area of Mississippi does not have one. Patients from all over the state should flow into such a facility. Right now, just about all counties just house them in jails. This is growing worse now that the state hospital at Whitfield can’t admit any more patients. Jail is not the proper place to treat mentally ill patients. So we desperately need such a facility.
The old lock-up unit will not be suitable. We will need many more beds to accommodate all the patients who will be sent to us. For one thing, the elevators at that end of the building have been out of service several months and are roped off. The only other elevator that works is at the other end of the building. Stairs or walking through the hospital with deranged and often violent patients is not suitable.
Also, the codes require two doors that open to the outside at ground level. So another building connected by a walkway or a wing added to the hospital would be necessary to meet the needs for this service.
To staff this unit, he will need to recruit at least three psychiatrists to give round- the-clock care and some more hospitalists and nurses and aides. We don’t have enough staff now to care for our current patients.
With Mr Abraham’s connections, he should be able to obtain grants to build and staff this service. Also he will need to secure a revenue stream to finance the monthly deficits, since the patients usually have no income or insurance, or if they do, it is usually only Medicaid, which only pays a token amount for psychiatric patients or nothing.
I would suggest a robust tax on alcohol, tobacco and opiates to pay monthly bills. All hospitals are in free fall in dropping revenues and can’t absorb additional losses and survive. This is especially true for Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
There will also be additional expenses to obtain a certificate of need, paying to get us certified to treat mental and behavioral patients and get us accredited for this new service. Raising taxes would not be good and would hinder new businesses coming here or older ones expanding.
Mr. Abraham has good leadership abilities to get this all done, and it should help him progress in future political ambitions.
It is so good to have someone who is interested in our many needs to serve our people.
John Hey, M.D.
Greenwood
