Children’s Hospital signed a lease in January for the former New Orleans Adolescent Hospital that required mental-health services there as a way to continue negotiating to purchase the building outright, but planned all along to keep its psychiatric services at the DePaul campus nearby, hospital officials told the New Orleans City Council on Thursday morning.
The NOAH site sits directly adjacent to the Children’s Hospital main campus on Henry Clay, and Children’s has been wanting to acquire that property for expansion for years, hospital Vice President Brian Landry told council members. Last year, the hospital asked the Jindal administration for the opportunity to buy the property, and a bill was submitted to the state legislature to allow that, Landry said. Before passage, however, it was amended to allow a lease, not a sale, and to require that Children’s Hospital to provide mental-health services on the same level as when the state closed NOAH in 2009, Landry said.
That amendment “created a real difficulty” for Children’s Hospital, Landry said, because the renovations to accomplish that would cost $20 million. In January, just before the deadline, Children’s Hospital went ahead and signed the lease, but with the understanding that the lease would be canceled if the property couldn’t be purchased as originally planned, Landry said.
Last month, state Rep. Neil Abramson announced that Children’s would be reopening NOAH for mental-health services, referring to that lease. But Children’s Hospital had “made it clear” that they did not intend to follow the provisions of the lease, but were signing it to maintain the opportunity to continue seeking a change to the law, Landry said. Since then, Abramson has filed a bill requiring the operator of NOAH — not necessarily Children’s — to restore its mental-health services, and state Rep. Helena Moreno has filed a bill allowing Children’s to take the site without the requirement.
However, Landry said, Children’s Hospital is committed to providing mental-health services at its DePaul campus on Calhoun Street.
“Some would have you believe that Children’s Hospital is not interested in providing behavioral health services,” Landry said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Susan Guidry, whose district includes the Children’s Hospital sites, focused her questions on the difference between the services offered at NOAH and those at the DePaul site. DePaul already has 33 beds, and in June will stop housing adult patients from the state, freeing up more than 30 more beds, Landry said.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, NOAH had 30 beds, said Dr. Andrew Williams, the current director of psychiatric medical services at Children, who previously worked at NOAH. Ten of those beds were for children ages 6 to 12, and 20 were for teens, he said. Just before it closed in 2009, it had been reduced to 15 beds, Williams said.
Like NOAH, the DePaul campus focuses on children with suicidal or homicidal tendencies, Williams said.
“We’re meeting some of those needs and expanding on those needs in really important areas,” Williams said.
Back in the 1990s, NOAH had more than 120 beds, but the approaches to mental health for children have changed dramatically since then, Landry noted.
One difference between NOAH and the DePaul site is that the NOAH site had court-ordered patients, whereas the DePaul site does not. Children’s Hospital is “working with the state to find appropriate treatment for those patients,” Williams said.
The conversation with Landry and Williams took place at the beginning of the day’s long City Council agenda, and after 15 minutes, Council President Stacy Head suggested that the council health committee chaired by LaToya Cantrell would be a better venue for Guidry’s inquiries. Guidry agreed, and assured the Children’s Hospital officials that the City Council is committed to finding the best resolution for both the hospital and the children of the city.
“We know the incredible importance of Children’s to our future,” Guidry said.
Call me crazy, but isn’t that fraud?