By SAMANTHA SARACINO
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Instead of going to the state's former Lakeshore Mental Health Institute, patients in our area are being sent to other facilities. So is the new plan working?
The main new location is Moccasin Bend in Chattanooga. Lakeshore closed as a state facility in June.
It's now equipped with vans 24/7 to transport patients from local hospitals to Moccasin Bend, if needed.
"We have 14 staff and three vans to be able to transport patients at a moment's notice should the three private hospitals call us," explained Bob Micinski, director of the East Tennessee Behavioral Health Transportation Project.
Since the Lakeshore closure, only two transports have taken place.
"We have not utilized the transportation unit. It's good to know they're there, but we have no need to have used them," said Bob Benning, CEO of Ridgeview in Oak Ridge.
Micinski says it's all a credit to the local hospitals, with the help of the Helen Ross McNabb Center, Inc.
"They are admitting folks they historically would not admit. They've done an excellent job in working with the other community providers and us to make sure patients are being served in the local community," Micinski explained.
A lot of those patients would have previously gone to Lakeshore.
"We continue to see that population. We are staffed appropriately to serve them. We have days where our maximum census is 16. We're feeling very good about our ability to treat that population," said Benning.
Ridgeview, along with the other hospitals, has hired a number of former Lakeshore employees, which has given them the ability to take on additional patients.
Micinski says depending on how the transportation service increases or decreases, that will determine how they will re-evaluate their staff and schedules.
Lakeshore closed as a state facility in June.
