Berryhill Center joins Trinity Health Systems

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The Berryhill Center for Mental Health has become part of Trinity Health Systems - the umbrella organization that includes Trinity Regional Medical Center and the Trimark Physicians Group.

The new arrangement, which became effective Tuesday, is designed to improve the availability of mental health care in an environment where the clinicians needed to meet patient needs are in short supply, according to Tom Tibbitts, president and chief executive officer of THS.

Prior to the Berryhill Center becoming part of THS, both the center and TRMC provided an assortment of outpatient behavioral health programs. Those services are being merged. They will soon all be housed primarily at the center's headquarters, 720 Kenyon Road, near the TRMC main campus.

''We're going to bring the behavioral health programs that are still at Trinity over here,'' said James Burr, the longtime Berryhill Center chief executive officer who remains at its administrative helm as executive director. ''So we will have all of behavioral health under one roof and basically under one administrative entity.''

Burr said the satellite clinics the Berryhill Center has operated for some time in Clarion, Humboldt and Webster City will continue to function under the new system.

He stressed that the goal of affiliating with THS is to combine the Berryhill Center's strengths and those of Trinity to build a stronger mental health system for the region.

''I think overall, we will make a more efficient and effective collection of services,'' he said.

That's a sentiment strongly echoed by Tibbitts.

''Ultimately, the goal is to expand services ... build a strong outpatient program,'' he said.

New capabilities

Tibbitts said THS is making a substantial financial investment in the Berryhill Center and has a long-term commitment to serving the mental health care needs of the region.

THS expenditures are already apparent in substantial refurbishing in progress of the 12,000-square-foot building that has been the center's home since 1991. Burr said that among the projects under way is readying for use about 2,500 square feet of space in the structure that had remained unfinished. He said the center's parking area will also soon be expanded providing about double the spaces now available.

The change with the biggest long-term significance, however, could be the creation of the facilities necessary to make use of telepsychiatry. This is seen by Burr and Tibbitts as a way to help address a shortage of psychiatrists that both said has been a major problem in recent years for the mental health care system both locally and statewide.

During a community mental health forum in March, Tibbitts said Iowa faces a critical lack of psychiatrists and mid-level mental health professionals. He said there are only about 260 psychiatrists in the entire state and 45 of Iowa's 99 counties lack even one. He said Iowa is ranked 47th among states in the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 population. He added that the situation is almost as bad with respect to psychologists, where Iowa's ranking is 46.

Making use of the available psychiatrists creatively will be necessary if patients' needs are to be met, Tibbitts said. He added that telemedicine is one of the approaches that has great potential.

Telemedicine capabilities, which allow psychiatrists to communicate with patients using an interactive television connection, would make it possible for the center to recruit psychiatrists who might not want to spend all of their time in Fort Dodge.

Dr. Monte Bernhagen, a psychiatrist who has been the center's medical director since early June, said the flexibility telepsychiatry affords could be a key to building a mental health care system in north central Iowa that adequately serves community needs.

He explained that it would make it attractive for psychiatrists who live elsewhere in the state to affiliate with the Berryhill Center because they could be in touch with patients as needed without being at the center every day. He also said that in a time when travel by automobile is becoming more expensive, it could be an economical way for patients at satellite offices to be linked to a psychiatrist without making a trip to Fort Dodge.

Bernhagen said a great many routine interactions with patients can be handled effectively using the telemedicine approach. He cited medication management and outpatient follow-up as examples of activities amenable to telepsychiatry. He said the approach is becoming extremely popular with psychiatrists and patients in areas where it is already being used.

''Just about everything is being done through telepsychiatry,'' he explained. ''Even some inpatient services are being done through telepsychiatry. ... It's a wide-ranging and it's a growing field.''

A model for others

Deb Albrecht, who has been the director of TRMC's behavioral health services and will remain a key liaison between the center and the medical center, said the new relationship between the center and the hospital will improve patient care. She said among the benefits is that professional consultations regarding patients at the hospital tapping into the expertise of specialists at the center will be readily available.

Bernhagen added that the center will benefit by being able to make use of experts at TRMC in a variety of areas including physician recruitment, human resources and government regulatory requirements.

Burr said that in affiliating with THS, the Berryhill Center becomes the first community mental health center in the state to be so closely related to a hospital. He and Tibbitts both said the new arrangement will be watched with interest by mental health leaders across the state as an innovation possibly worth emulating.

''We are hoping it can be a model ... because we believe it is a good way to go,'' Burr said.

Contact Terrence Dwyer at (515) 573-2141 or tdwyer@messengernews.net