For Luminis Health’s top executive, building a behavioral health pavilion was a matter of health equity.
The company’s new pavilion, which opened its doors in June, was born out of a dire need for behavioral health facilities in Prince George County, Maryland. Currently, there are only two inpatient mental health facilities in a county of more than 1 million people, according to Deneen Richmond, president of Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center.
“We had this commitment that we wanted to add behavioral health services so that [residents of] Prince George’s had the opportunity to get quality care close to home,” Richmond told Behavioral Health Business. “One key statistic I’ll share with you is that 53% of all inpatient admission for people who live in Prince George’s County … were occurring outside of the county.”
The new pavilion was supported by a $20 million grant from Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and the County Council.
Luminis Health was formed in 2019 with the merger of Anne Arundel Medical Center and Doctors Community Medical Center. The nonprofit includes a team of 900 employees and volunteers.
In addition to behavioral health, the medical system offers emergency services and physical health care. Richmond noted that the health system serves a diverse patient population, representative of the majority African American population in Prince George’s County.
Luminis serves patients with commercial health insurance, Medicaid and Medicare.
The health system is looking to use the pavilion as a way to help individuals with behavioral health needs get into care before they face a crisis.
Seventy percent of individuals arrested and taken to the county correctional facility are intoxicated or under the influence of substances, and 30% of people arrested have active behavioral health issues, according to a statement from Alsobrooks.
“[Alsobrooks] wanted to support people with mental health and substance issues,” Richmond said. “And there were gaps in the services that were available.”
Inside the pavilion
The new pavilion is a two-story building, which will have a 16-bed inpatient psychiatric unit on the second floor slated to open in December. Additionally, it will have an eight-bed addiction residential service.
Patients of all ages will now be able to come to the pavilion’s behavioral health urgent care center with no appointment. It will also include an outpatient mental health center, which will initially serve adults only but will eventually serve children as well.
A psychiatric day treatment program for partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs will also be available for adults and adolescents.
“Our goal and our vision is that with this broad mix of services that we are going to be able to offer that we’ll be able to address people’s mental health and substance use needs prior to them getting into a crisis situation,” Richmond said.
