Universal Health Services will lead the hospital's Division of Behavioral Health

The Behavioral Health Division provides hospital care to approximately 46 to 48 patients – including seven or eight children or adolescents – each day.

A total of 518 adults and 517 children and adolescents had to be hospitalized last year. His patients are usually in a psychiatric crisis as a result of depressive or bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders or other behavioral health problems.

Universal Health Services plans to build a 120-bed hospital at an unknown site in Milwaukee County.

The company operates 188 inpatient behavioral health centers and 20 outpatient behavioral health centers in the United States. It also has 108 behavioral health hospitals and two clinics in the UK, as well as four hospitals and a clinic in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Universal Health Services, which also operates acute care hospitals, reported net income of $ 752.3 million on revenues of $ 10.4 billion last year.

The company has experience in managing psychiatric hospitals providing care to patients similar to those at the Behavioral Health Division Hospital – those with serious behavioral health problems.

Universal Health Services will bring a proven model to the region, said Mike Lappen, Administrator of the Behavioral Health Division.

"We think we can learn from them," said Lappen.

The planned hospital will also increase the number of hospital-based behavioral health care beds in the Milwaukee area and provide psychiatric geriatric care.

Another potential benefit is that the hospital will provide patient care with commercial health insurance, said Lappen, and that the stigma of the hospital's Behavioral Health Division, where almost all patients are covered by Medicaid, Medicare or both.

Investigation in progress

According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Universal Health Services faces fraud investigations conducted by the US Department of Justice and Attorneys General of more than 30 of its behavioral health hospitals.

The investigations include criminal investigations in four of his hospitals, as well as universal health services as a legal entity.

The company has denied that fraudulent invoices have been submitted to government agencies.

The law firm that did due diligence on the company for the Behavioral Health Division determined that the allegations were limited to hospitals listed in the depots, Lappen said.

"There was nothing that would prevent us from contracting with them," he said.

Universal Health Services will be awarded a seven-year contract with five five-year extensions. If the Behavioral Health division terminates the contract before age 15, it will have to pay for the part of the hospital built for the division that has not been depreciated.

Lappen estimates that the contract will cost the Behavioral Health Division about $ 5 million a year to cover the cost of people who do not have insurance coverage.

This excludes retirement costs, estimated at $ 7.2 million, and the cost of patients who will be treated in the two behavioral health hospitals of the state.

The Behavioral Health Division also anticipates that administrative costs will be much lower.

It has budgeted $ 40 million, including $ 22.4 million from county taxpayers, to provide inpatient care at the mental health complex this year.

Universal Health Services has not committed to hiring nurses and others who are now working in the unit providing inpatient care. The unit employs the equivalent of 124 full-time employees.

But Mr Lappen said he expects most employees to be offered jobs in the company because of the shortage of psychiatric nurses.

"UHS will need all the staff possible," he said.

Universal Health Services, which wanted to enter the Milwaukee market, was the only entity willing to sign a contract with Behavioral Health.

The division had hoped that a health system in Milwaukee County would take a step forward.

Rogers' Behavioral Health System, Ascension Wisconsin and Wisconsin Children's Hospital explored the possibility of jointly managing a hospital at St. Joseph's Hospital in Ascension Wisconsin last year, but decided not to complete the contract.

Froedtert Health, which had $ 1.7 billion in reserves at the end of last year, has never grown.

Aurora Health Care, now part of Aurora Health, which plans to spend $ 250 million to build a medical hospital and office building in Mount Pleasant, as well as clinics in Racine County.

Aurora operates a psychiatric hospital in Wauwatosa that provides services to some patients in the Division of Behavioral Health.

The Universal Health Services planned hospital will not have an emergency department and observation wing, and those who will provide these services when the new hospital is open have not been identified.

RELATED: How should Milwaukee provide care when mental illness becomes an emergency?

The Wisconsin Policy Forum and a Massachusetts nonprofit consulting firm are completing a study on options for redesigning the emergency psychiatric care delivery system in Milwaukee County.

Options include the transfer of responsibility to non-profit hospital systems.

The ongoing contract with Universal Health Services would mark another step in the ongoing Behavioral Health Division's approach to providing services in the community.

Initiatives include the opening of two resource centers in a crisis, where patients can stay up to five days, as well as creating mobile crisis teams. He also put more emphasis on the management of cases of serious persistent mental illness.

The long-term care mental health complex unit was also closed in 2016 and its former patients are now living in community facilities.

"The agreement with UHS is a key step in the transformation we've been doing at BHD over the past seven years, and I'm excited to continue moving forward," said Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Executive. .

Abele played an important role in persuading the legislator to pass Bill 203, which created the Milwaukee County Mental Health Council to oversee the Behavioral Health Division.

The measurements were taken after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published numerous stories exposing the mental health complex's problems, from its outdated building to the gaps in care, including the death of patients and other cracks in the community. county safety net.

Lappen, the administrator of the Division of Behavioral Health, acknowledged that the transition to universal health services would be tricky.

The union factor

The Behavioral Health Division – which has had difficulty recruiting and retaining staff – plans to obtain approval for a retention program for employees during the last year in which the health complex mental remains open.

The Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals represents approximately 140 nurses, music therapists and occupational therapists from the Mental Health Complex.

Jamie Lucas, Executive Director of the union, said the union's recognition would help ensure oversight of universal health services.

"The voice of the employees is the last line of defense," Lucas said.

The unions represent workers at six Universal Health Services hospitals, according to the company's financial records.

Candice Owley, president of the Wisconsin union, who is also concerned about the company's oversight, is disappointed that a local health care system has not intervened and that the behavioral health division has contracted a company to profit.

The Behavioral Health Division will receive quarterly reports on a range of quality measures, and these reports will be public, Lappen said. The contract will also give him full access to patient and billing information.

The division will also receive comments from patients treated at the hospital.

Barbara Beckert, director of Wisconsin's Disability Rights office in Milwaukee, said she would have liked the contract negotiations to be more public, but to support contracts from the Behavioral Health Division for hospital care.

Operating a hospital is expensive, she said, and the Division of Behavioral Health does not have the economies of scale that health systems have.

She is also concerned about the hospital's control and the mixed results of Universal Health Services in terms of care.

Neubauer, the board member who oversees the Behavioral Health Division, acknowledged concerns about supervision, but said the guarantees were in the contract.

She also noted that the Behavioral Health Division is now contracting with other hospitals.

"We can not expect more UHS than we expect from other hospitals," Neubauer said.

She was also impressed by the Universal Health Services hospitals she visited as part of the committee that oversaw due diligence on the company.

"It had to be where I would be willing to go myself for services," Neubauer said.

The Division of Behavioral Health has scheduled a meeting at 4:30 pm Thursday at Washington Park Senior Center which will be open to the public for comment.