The Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health is just one step away from securing $38 million needed for its new 106-bed mental hospital in downtown Tulsa.
The Oklahoma Legislature’s Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding this week gave its final blessing to the proposal to fund additional patient capacity and expanded behavioral health and internal medicine services at an already in-process new hospital.
It is but one of a slate of project proposals seeking some of Oklahoma’s $1.8 billion share of the $1.9 trillion federal economic stimulus bill called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Committee-approved project proposals will go before the full Legislature during a special session, which is expected to reconvene in late September.
“The final step is to get approval from the Legislature, and we expect the process to go smoothly,” said Dr. Crystal Hernandez, executive director of TCBH. “The impact of this funding is going to be monumental in the way we serve individuals in crisis — and it has been a long time coming. The staff is absolutely thrilled to be part of something so monumental for this region.
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“Mental health is health and should be treated accordingly and without stigma.”
The $70 million, 137,000-square-foot hospital, to be built adjacent to the new Veterans Affairs hospital on downtown’s west side, is also being funded by private donations and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Construction is expected to begin next summer, and the new hospital is slated to open in November 2024.
The hospital will replace the current 56-bed Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health, which is in rented space in the former Doctors Hospital building at 2325 S. Harvard Ave. The Department of Mental Health has been an occupant there for 20 years.
Redirecting those rent dollars and increasing patient billing revenue from 56 beds to 106 will fund the additional operations for the 50 new beds.
Hernandez said the investment of federal pandemic relief funding will also add internal medicine and some additional addiction treatment needs to the hospital, so mental health patients can be better served in a single location.
Other large proposals headed to the Legislature for final approval include:
$87 million for a much larger replacement of the state’s largest psychiatric hospital, Griffin Memorial Hospital, located in Norman.
$50 million for an Oklahoma Water Resources Board grant program to fund water infrastructure needs around the state.
$44 million for information technology updates for the University Hospital Authority, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and OU Health.
$26 million for information technology updates at the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
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