CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Highland-Clarksburg Hospital is preparing for a major expansion in their drug treatment services.
The hospital will begin a $17.4 million expansion project early in 2018. The project will add 19 beds for adult substance abuse patients, 19 beds for adolescent substance abuse patients, a 10-bed acute unit for adolescents that will serve as a seven to ten day detoxification unit, 20 additional beds for forensics patients, an 8,000 square foot gymnasium, and a 200 x 100 foot outdoor green space for patients.
“The number one thing that the community identifies as a need that they want us to address — it is drug addiction and drug treatment,” Highland-Clarksburg President and CEO Mike Casdorph said.
“With the opening of the two substance abuse units, we are addressing that need here in North Central West Virginia.”
The expansion will result in nearly 80 full-time equivalent positions and more than 100 new jobs overall. As a result of the expansion, the hospital is planning to work with a third-party provider to provide on-site childcare for employees.
“Since we are expanding so much, we also have to expand the support services at the hospital,” Casdorph said.
Those new positions will include registered nurses (RN), licensed practical nurses (LPN), behavior health technicians, therapists, support services, dietary, housekeeping, and maintenance.
“We’re going to have therapists with substance abuse training and specialties,” the hospital’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Christi Cooper-Lehki, said. “There will be different medications, different group focuses. It will be a different treatment approach.”
Julie Bozarth, Highland-Clarksburg’s director of therapy and social services, said the expansion will allow the hospital to offer a number of different treatment options for those suffering from opioid abuse — including the SMART Recovery 4-Point Program, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous.
“Addiction is a pretty advanced disease, and not one treatment works for everybody,” Bozarth said. “We’re trying to offer a variety of different things that we can [use] to help our patients recover.”
Bozarth anticipates the addition of beds for 13 to 17 year-old patients suffering from substance abuse disorders to play a major role in the hospital’s future.
“We have noticed that the sooner we start treatment, the easier it is for it to kind of take effect,” she said. “If they are starting to have these problems at that younger age, we want to try to address those now to prevent anything from progressing and getting worse as they get older.”
Cooper-Lehki added education must continue to filter through younger and younger audiences to help preventive measures take root in future generations.
“The more stable people are, the less their chances of relapse,” she said. “And these are diseases of relapse.”
The additional 20 beds for forensics patients will complete the hospital’s forensics tower for long-term patients not competent to stand trial, not restore-able, and found not guilty by reason of mental illness.
“They are here for more serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,” she said. “We also have a large population of pretty low IQ. The focus is quite different for them. They are more serious, chronic mental illness kind of patients.”
The West Virginia Health Care Authority issued an exemption for a certificate of need, allowing Highland-Clarksburg to develop the new facilities and new treatment plans.
Highland-Clarksburg is presently at 85 percent capacity, according to Mike Casdorph. They’ll increase their overall capacity for substance abuse patients by nearly 50 percent, from 115 beds to 173 beds. The new units are projected to open in Fall 2018.
Casdorph expects the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Group to approve a low-interest loan by the end of 2017 — allowing construction to begin and end next year.