AUGUSTA, Maine — Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew is praising staff at the Riverview Psychiatric Center after the latest Joint Commission accreditation rating, the highest the facility has seen in the last two years.
But Democrats say the facility has yet to meet its most important benchmark.
Mayhew said the latest quality rating, 96.7 percent, is the result of a lot of work by Riverview staff to meet quality measures set by the accrediting agency around admission screenings, use of physical restraints and medication among others.
“These scores are a testament to the incredible work of the staff at Riverview, to Jay Harper, as the superintendent of Riverview and their collective efforts to improve the environment and the quality of care at that hospital,” she said.
State Rep. Drew Gattine, a Democrat from Westbrook and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, said the quality rating and hospital accreditation is good news. But he said that does not address Riverview’s most pressing and fundamental problem, the loss of Medicaid certification. It’s crucial for funding mental health services.
“Every single hospital in the state of Maine currently meets this minimum federal standard, other than this hospital which is actually run and operated by our Department of Health and Human Services,” he said.
The federal Medicaid program typically provides more than 60 percent of the cost of covered medical services, greatly reducing the state’s cost of providing care. But right now the state is paying the total cost of mental health services.
Gattine says there are other problems at Riverview besides funding, including the fact that some of the patients there no longer need the level of care provided by a hospital.
“There are people at the hospital who no longer need hospital-level care, and we need to create services out in the community for those people to go when they are ready to be discharged from the hospital,” he said.
Mayhew said DHHS has proposed several solutions to that problem, as well as the problem of dealing with patients that come from the criminal justice system and need treatment in a secure setting.
She said the federal government does not recognize Riverview’s dual role in treating both types of patients.
She said she will continue to propose creation of a separate, secure facility for forensic patients while bolstering the treatment of the remaining mental health patients at Riverview.
“It’s very difficult to hear the quotes that clearly don’t appear to be committed to actually resolving the problem but more focused on laying blame,” Mayhew said. “We don’t have the luxury of sitting back and trying to find someone to blame.”
Mayhew wants Riverview to be a center of excellence, not just a psychiatric hospital. She said to meet that goal patients who come from the criminal justice system will need to be in a different facility when they require hospitalization. Once they no longer need treatment, but still pose a risk to the public, Mayhew said they will need to be in a secure setting that provides appropriate mental health services.
She said lawmakers will get the opportunity to consider those needed changes in Maine’s mental health programs in January.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public Broadcasting Network.