Access Hospital Dayton
What: A private, for-profit, short-term stay hospital offering mental health services and now overnight drug and alcohol detox services
Where: 2611 Wayne Ave., Dayton
Phone: 937-256-7801
Chief Executive Officer: Dr. John Johnson
Website: www.accesshospital.com
Patient admissions: 159 for all of 2012, first full-year of operations
Employees: 100 full- and part-time employees and 13 medical staff
A local private mental health hospital that opened two years ago with 28 inpatient beds now has added 30 more and is seeing demand for its services grow.
Access Hospital Dayton opened in 2011 at 2611 Wayne Ave. on an interim license from the then Ohio Department of Mental Health.
At the end of 2012, Access Hospital Dayton received full license and accreditation from the state agency and the Joint Commission, a “lengthy and complicated” process, said Missy Honeycutt, assistant administrator of Access Dayton.
Now with the accreditation and licensing process completed, Access Dayton is seeing its patient numbers grow and is adding more services.
Access Dayton is a private, for-profit, short-term stay hospital offering mental health services. Dr. John Johnson is majority owner and chief executive officer.
Johnson and co-owner Dr. Mukesh Rangwani bought the hospital property that encompasses 46 acres and three buildings, from the state in 2011. It’s the former site of the state-owned Twin Valley psychiatric hospital that closed in 2008.
The closings several years ago of two state-owned psychiatric hospitals in Dayton and Cambridge were “a savings in overhead costs,” said Trudy Sharp, spokeswoman for what is now called Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Access Dayton’s inpatient unit for depression, psychosis and other mental health services offers short-term overnight stays for patients. The typical length of stay can range from several days up to several weeks, depending on the patient’s condition.
“We get referrals from the emergency rooms, we get referrals from private physicians, psychiatrists and primary care providers,” Honeycutt said.
Once the first inpatient unit reached capacity, Access Dayton opened this year a second unit with 30 beds for overnight drug and alcohol detox patients and patients diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder and mental illness.
The detox and dual diagnosis unit opened in April. These patients’ average length of stay is three to seven days for detox services and up to three to four weeks for more treatment.
Andrea Hoff, director of community engagement and special initiatives for the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board for Montgomery County, said one recommendation of the former Montgomery County Alcohol & Drug Abuse Task Force was for increased local detox services.
“Right now it’s a gap and we don’t have those services available,” Hoff said.
In total, Access Dayton has capacity for 110 beds. Plans are to open each of its four units, including the two already open, in phases based on community need and a growing patient census, Honeycutt said.
During 2012, the first full year of operations, Access Dayton admitted 159 patients. Hospital officials estimate patient admissions this year will reach a minimum 500.
“I think there is a genuine increase in demand and we see this both in the private sector and the public sector” for services, said Dr. Mark Hurst, medical director of Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Admissions to state hospitals have increased “substantially” in recent years, from about 5,500 in fiscal year 2012 to about 7,000 in the fiscal year 2013 that ended July 1, Hurst said.
“I think there are a lot of reasons with it. We are just now coming out of bad economic times and there is a relationship between psychiatric illness and severity of psychiatric illness and a poor economy,” he said.
“The opiate crisis also has something to do with this,” as well as reduced funding from the state government for outpatient mental health services. Some patients not able to access outpatient services became more ill and require hospitalization, he said.
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