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Work On New OSH Unit Progresses
Capacity At Biddle Building Would Jump From 176 To 206 Beds
By Dustin Kass, dustinKass@miconews.com
Work to create a new, 30-bed unit at Osawatomie State Hospital is already underway, as crews work to gut the interior of the Biddle Building.
OSH administrators now just have to figure out which type and how many patients the unit will eventually hold.
The transformation of Biddle started in June, as work crews first started the interior demolition. Funding for the project, totalling $2.7 million, was approved by state legislators in 2007, and the additional unit was designed to ease capacity problems OSH continues to battle. The construction of the unit would raise capacity from 176 to 206 beds, a significant jump for a facility that has been over capacity about 30 percent of the time through the first five months of 2008.
The Biddle work is projected to be complete next spring, likely around late March or early April, said Superintendent Greg Valentine. However, Valentine and his fellow administrators are unsure of when the unit will open.
Funding to staff the new unit was approved during the 2008 legislative session, as $1.5 million was set aside to fulfill a request for just under 50 full-time equivalent positions.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has since asked all state agencies to curtail their budgets by 2 percent, a request that may prevent the unit from opening as originally planned in 2009, Valentine said. He said the hospital had not started even attempting to fill any of the new positions, noting that hiring even for open existing positions is becoming more measured.
“We’re cutting back on hiring and trying to be very strategic,” Valentine told members of the Osawatomie State Hospital Citizens Advisory Board on Thursday.
Instead, he and other administrators are considering a number of options and avenues for the entire patient population.
“We’re still conceptualizing,” he said. “Basically at this point, everything is in the pot.”
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OSH administrators now just have to figure out which type and how many patients the unit will eventually hold.
The transformation of Biddle started in June, as work crews first started the interior demolition. Funding for the project, totalling $2.7 million, was approved by state legislators in 2007, and the additional unit was designed to ease capacity problems OSH continues to battle. The construction of the unit would raise capacity from 176 to 206 beds, a significant jump for a facility that has been over capacity about 30 percent of the time through the first five months of 2008.
The Biddle work is projected to be complete next spring, likely around late March or early April, said Superintendent Greg Valentine. However, Valentine and his fellow administrators are unsure of when the unit will open.
Funding to staff the new unit was approved during the 2008 legislative session, as $1.5 million was set aside to fulfill a request for just under 50 full-time equivalent positions.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has since asked all state agencies to curtail their budgets by 2 percent, a request that may prevent the unit from opening as originally planned in 2009, Valentine said. He said the hospital had not started even attempting to fill any of the new positions, noting that hiring even for open existing positions is becoming more measured.
“We’re cutting back on hiring and trying to be very strategic,” Valentine told members of the Osawatomie State Hospital Citizens Advisory Board on Thursday.
Instead, he and other administrators are considering a number of options and avenues for the entire patient population.
“We’re still conceptualizing,” he said. “Basically at this point, everything is in the pot.”