Harrington looks ahead to psych unit renovation in Webster
A runner reaches the finish line at Harrington HealthCare's 5K color run on May 4, a fundraiser for a planned inpatient psychiatric unit at the system's Webster campus.
Southbridge-based Harrington HealthCare has begun fundraising for its new psychiatric unit at the former Hubbard Hospital in Webster, the second major project after Harrington opened the new Remillard Family Emergency Center on the campus earlier this year.
The unit will add 16 beds within Harrington’s southern Worcester County coverage area, which, like many other areas of the state, suffers from a lack of inpatient psychiatric services, according to Donald Brechner, vice president of behavioral health services at Harrington.
Currently, one 14-bed unit at the Southbridge campus is the only inpatient psychiatric center in the region. The closest neighbors are in Worcester, and frequently those beds are filled, forcing Harrington to send patients to the Boston area when they need inpatient treatment.
“There are a lot of new inpatient beds coming up online very soon … but there’s still nothing in our area,” Brechner said, noting that providers closer to Boston and Springfield have planned expansions.
Health Policy Commission aids in planning, funding
While Brechner could not provide a timeline for the project, he said he’s hoping that construction will begin sometime this year. Harrington is working with the state Health Policy Commission on plans for the 16-bed unit, after it awarded a Community Hospital Acceleration, Revitalization, and Transformation, or CHART, grant to Harrington to boost access to mental health services in southern Worcester County.
Brechner said the grant covers about one-third of the cost of the roughly $3 million renovation project, which will involve renovating a former medical-surgical unit at the Webster campus. The hospital has also begun fundraising for the project.
Over the weekend, Harrington raised more than $11,000 through its Take a Mental Health Day 5K in Southbridge. Proceeds were more than double the hospital’s goal of $5,000 for the event, according to a statement. Harrington is examining additional fundraising methods to cover the roughly $1.5 million financing gap for the new psychiatric unit, the statement said.
The planned Southbridge unit will enhance the scope of inpatient services Harrington offers as well as the number of beds. Brechner said it will have the capacity to treat patients who suffer from substance abuse disorders as well as mental illness, which Brechner said is the case for a large percentage of behavioral health patients.
Harrington officials have been vying for such a psychiatric unit for several years, said Brechner, who has been with the system for nine years, but the CHART grant from the still-young Health Policy Commission, a product of the state’s landmark 2012 health care cost containment law, gave it a needed jumpstart.
Meanwhile, the CHART grant will also fund other mental health services initiatives within the Harrington system, including outpatient programs that will help patients transition back into the community after spending time in the inpatient unit, as well as behavioral health assessments in the emergency room and the use of social workers in physicians’ offices to help patients find the services they need.
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