18 March 2024
NEWTON, Kan. (KSNW) — Prairie View is closer to reopening as a Behavioral Urgent Care Center (BUC) in Newton. On Monday, KSN News got a better understanding of what the former Prairie View Hospital will offer.
The center will be for those experiencing a mental health crisis.
“Rather than have them detained in hospital beds, in the ICU or the emergency department or having them in jails, they can come to us, and we can try to stabilize them or find them a hospital placement,” Marcy Johnson, Prairie View president and CEO, said. “We really felt like … there were not enough places for people who are in crisis waiting for inpatient beds. So, the goal is to be able to stabilize folks. Maybe avoid a hospital stay in general.”
Johnson said Prairie View tries to remove barriers.
“There’s no insurance. There are no prior auths (authorizations). You just come to our access department. If we determine you’re in crisis, we admit you to the unit,” she said. “And then we spend about 72 hours trying to stabilize folks and return them back to their community.”
If a patient is not stabilized after 72 hours, Prairie View will work to get them admitted to an inpatient unit.
When Prairie View Hospital closed to transition to urgent care, the hospital workers were furloughed for 10 business days so construction could occur. They will come back on Monday, March 25, to be trained to work in the Behavioral Urgent Care Center.
“We’re going to spend about a week doing a retraining,” Stefanie Roth, director of inpatient services, said. “It’s a lot of the same practices that we’ll have. It’s just going to be a little bit different format – going over some safety procedures, intervention, crisis intervention type training with the staff.”
Roth described how the hospital is being turned into the new urgent care center.
“We’re repurposing what we currently have. We’re making it ‘site safe,’ is the terminology that you use, so taking away anything that a patient could hurt themselves with, getting the weighted furniture, creating an assessment area, an intake area,” she said. “And a little bit more security cameras, some safety for our staff and the patients.”
“I think our hope is for patients to be met where their needs are at, and not having to be detained in environments that are traumatizing, triggering, not therapeutic,” Johnson said. “The goal is just to keep people safe, decrease suicide rates, increase access to care, support people and keep them stable in their communities and out of hospital beds.”
The target opening date is April 1. The Praire View Behavioral Urgent Care Center will be open 24 hours a day and will serve people 18 or older. Its coverage area includes Harvey, McPherson, and Marion counties. Calling ahead will help, but it is not required. The number is 800-992-6292.
Prairie View is a nonprofit. A spokesperson said it will see people regardless of insurance, and no patient will receive a bill for care for crisis services.
The State of Kansas gave Prairie View a grant to open the center. Johnson hopes that what they do in Newton will be a lesson for other communities.
“We are one of the very first organizations to do this line of work,” she said. “So the goal is to replicate what we are doing to other counties throughout the state, once we get it up and going, and we’re doing a really good job at it … The goal would be for every county in the state to have access to an urgent care unit like ours, to keep people in crisis safe until they can get into an inpatient bed.”