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Proposed Psychiatric Facility Approved

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 25, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - An Orlando-area health care provider has won state approval for a psychiatric care facility to be located at a site along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which must approve plans for health care facilities, gave Ten Broeck Tampa Inc. a green light for its proposed 40-bed mental health facility.

The approval was given without a public hearing. Agency spokesman Fernando Senra said a hearing isn't held unless it's requested by supporters or opponents of a specific proposal.
Ten Broeck is part of United Medical Corp., a for-profit health care company based in Windermere, near Orlando.

The proposed mental hospital would cover 34,500 square feet and cost $15.7 million.

As part of its approval, Ten Broeck's facility will:

•Be secured, allowing it to receive and hold people taken in for psychiatric observation under the state's Baker Act.

•Employ two full-time psychiatrists for at least the first two years of operation.

•Set aside the bulk of its beds for adult psychiatric care. Five would be set aside for people seeking drug treatment under the state's Marchman Act.
Sheriff Bob White was among the proposed facility's supporters because, he told the state agency, his deputies must take people arrested under the Baker Act to west Pasco hospitals for psychiatric observation.

"This will allow us to get those people the help they need sooner," sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Zephyrhills police Chief Russell Barnes also signed on to support Ten Broeck's proposal, as did Dade City police Chief Ray Velboom. Both chiefs told the agency their officers must take people held under the Baker Act across the county for care - a 100-mile round trip.
Ten Broeck won state approval over Morton Plant Hospital Association's mental health facility proposal. The Morton Plant facility would have been near the Suncoast Parkway, about six miles from Community Hospital of New Port Richey's facility under construction near State Road 54 and Little Road.

In documents filed with the state, Ten Broeck officials said they have three possible sites for the facility along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. All are near the Wiregrass Ranch site approved for a hospital operated by Adventist Health System and University Community Hospital.

The developers of Seven Oaks won county approval in 2005 for a medical park west of Bruce B. Downs. Those sites are across the road and slightly north from the Adventist-UCH site.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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