Commentary:
Must the city and county, as MMC’s landlords, sue Memorial Medical Center to make MMC keep its written promises?
MMC’s 5th floor psych ward is an essential community resource. Many citizens need psychiatric care, and Las Cruces is woefully underserved. Some patients with urgent medical needs have mental health problems that interfere with treatment. The lease requires MMC to remain “a full-service hospital,” with a “12-bed locked psychiatric unit.”
The lease requires 30-days’ written notice before trying to close the psychward. MMC quietly closed the psych ward last year, with no formal notice. (County Manager Fernando Macias and City Manager Ifo Pili sit on MMC’s Board.)
Recently,“Mrs. Z” was admitted with a serious medical issue but her mental health issues interfered with treatment. MMC’s psych ward was closed. Mesilla Valley Hospital could treat the mental but not the medical problem. MMC called Mrs. Z’s daughter to pick her up and drive her to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo. Now she’s at UNM, far from everyone she knows. Because MMC has no psych ward.
“Y”is a young Las Crucen who needs “strict psychiatric regulation.” His family says the closing forced him to move to El Paso – where he was recently missing for weeks before turning up in jail.
MMC CEO John Harris says, “The decision to close this floor was not taken lightly. Provision of these services has always been based upon being able to staff this unit appropriately and safely. Once this has been achieved, we look forward to bringing these services to our community.”
What magic enables Gerald Champion to have a supervising psychiatrist, when Las Cruces is at least as appealing a place in which to live and work in? Might it have helped for MMC to advertise nationally, an obvious first step? It’s likely that in our market-driven society MMC could hire a psychiatrist if it really wanted to. Though there is a national shortage.
Critics say MMC isn’t trying. Historically, it’s been a community battle to keep the facility open. Outspoken advocate Ron Gurley and other protesters got it re-opened several years ago. Some say that if psychiatric services were more profitable, MMC would have re-opened already. Harris denies that, citing several unprofitable operations the hospital retains because they’re needed.
Harris also says restoring psychiatric care is a high priority. He hopes to have the unit opened in 2-4 months.
I hope he’s right.
If wary community members are right, MMC is willfully violating its lease.County Commission Chair Susie Chaparro says, “I don’t think we should tolerate it,” and Commissioner Shannon Reynolds is also angry about it. I urge the city council and county commission to authorize staff to write MMC so stating.
It’s troubling that our local governments have done absolutely nothing about this. It’s not for lack of information, with Pili and Macias on MMC’s board. (I’m still waiting to hear why the city can sue its own municipal court judge, on a silly claim the district court immediately tossed out, but not a zillion-dollar corporation breaching its lease.) It might prove unnecessary, but would make clear to MMC that we’re serious.
I’ll cop to some real skepticism about large corporations giving community needs and attitudes fair weight when those conflict at all with maximizing profits. I hope Lifepoint Health, which owns MMC, proves an exception, and that Spring 2023 will bring a renewal of psychiatric care.