State to close unit at Independence Mental Health Institute

DES MOINES - Up to 10 positions at the Independence Mental Health Institute will be eliminated with the state's decision to close a 15-bed pediatric unit at the facility, a state Department of Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.

Reduction-in-force notices were issued Thursday to 10 state staff members at the Psychiatric Medical Institution for Children (PMIC) Unit - inpatient services for children with serious emotional and behavioral problems.

DHS public information officer Amy McCoy said some affected staff - which include youth services workers, educators, youth counselors and a supervisor - may transfer to positions in other programs at the Independence MHI, to other state-operated facilities or to other state jobs based on their contract rights and qualifications.

The Independence MHI has more than 200 total employees, McCoy said. It has 20 children's acute inpatient psychiatric beds.

The planned closure will not affect acute psychiatric services for adults or children and adolescents, McCoy added.

No patients are being served in the PMIC unit, which has seen a 50 percent reduction in utilization over the past five years. The unit, established in 1999, has had only 26 admissions in the 2015 fiscal year, she noted, and no patients have been served in the unit since last July.

In addition, there are no children in the MHI's Acute Inpatient Unit needing placement in the PMIC unit.

'We understand that this is a difficult time for our staff that provided quality care to PMIC patients, and we thank them for their dedicated service,” McCoy said in regard to the layoff notices.

The pending closure is due to the fact that no state funding was recommended for the PMIC unit in the 2017 fiscal year that begins July 1, McCoy said in an email. She added there was no appropriation for continued operation of a unit that received a combination of state general fund dollars and federal Medicaid payments.

The average cost at a private psychiatric medical institution for children is about $215 per day, McCoy said, while the average cost at Independence was more than $1,000 per day.

The estimated general fund savings from closing the unit would be about $820,000 in the coming fiscal year, she added.

Community providers in Iowa offer more than 475 comprehensive, licensed PMIC beds - and 385 of those receive Medicaid funding for mental health services, she said. Statewide, PMICs have been able to serve more children - 1,021 children in the 2015 fiscal year compared with 854 children the 2009 fiscal year.

'As we continue to manage shortfalls within our budget, the department's resources are best utilized in programs that treat patients with the most acute needs that cannot be met in the community,” McCoy said.

Friday's development follows an earlier decision made by Gov. Terry Branstad's administration to close state-run mental health institutions in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant with a stated goal of providing better services in a more modern setting.