TULSA, Okla. — Saint Francis Health System announced it will expand its psychiatric hospital by adding more beds and renovating several mental health units.
Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital expects to hold 150 beds by May 2025, up from 90 beds currently. It will also renovate its clinical assessment department, crisis stabilization unit, and other clinics inside.
"We're also opening a new crisis center with eleven chairs that will allow us to treat people that need more than outpatient care but don't quite need hospitalization," Laureate Hospital President Ken Moore told 2 News.
The health system said it's always had competitive pay and benefits to recruit its workforce at Laureate, and adds it doesn't expect to change its approach for this expansion.
"Laureate currently has about 300 employees," Moore added. "We have most of our key positions filled. And so I feel really good about where we're at."
Earlier Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Capitol, the Oklahoma House Public Health Committee hosted university specialists and several Tulsa-based psychiatric providers to examine the state of the behavioral mental health workforce and realistic strategies to improve it.
"(We) certainly recognize that there's a need for a variety of mental health professionals to be able to care for our communities," Dr. Sara Coffey of Oklahoma State University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health said during the meeting.
Parkside Psychiatric Hospital CEO Jim Serratt explained his approach to finding sufficient personnel numbers.
"It's expensive, guys. And it's worth every penny," Serratt said. "We have eight people in the nursing program right now that we're funding. That's eight nurses that I don't need to recruit. That's building our future human capital."
Moore, joined by other healthcare leaders and Mayor G.T. Bynum in Tuesday's groundbreaking, said their expansion helps raise the bar for fighting mental healthcare deficiencies in Green Country.
"We can take care of psychiatric illness that this community so desperately needs help with," he said.
Laureate Hospital said the expansion's construction will cost about $70 million — funded entirely by private donors.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
