Memorial Breaks Ground on New Behavioral Health Hospital
Announcement
Lake Charles Memorial Health System is moving forward with a $19 million behavioral health hospital in South Lake Charles. Memorial officially broke ground on the new facility on the morning of Wednesday, September 21.
Memorial’s new behavioral health hospital is under construction adjacent to the Memorial Hospital for Women campus. A team of architects and medical staff took a year designing the new hospital by looking at some of the best facilities in the nation.
“This one was designed from the ground up specifically with patient needs in mind and current state-of-the-art psychiatric care,” says Robert Prehn, PhD., Vice President of Specialty Services. “We can do things with this facility that we would not be able to do with a facility that we were renovating.”
Psychiatrist Dr. Dale Archer, Jr, made a major donation towards the new hospital through the Foundation at Lake Charles Memorial. The facility will be known as the Archer Institute at Lake Charles Memorial Health System to honor Dr. Archer's legacy as a leader and mental health advocate in Southwest Louisiana.
The first phase is set to open in 2017 and will consist of two units: a 28 bed adult unit and a 14 bed adolescent unit. The current adult unit on the 10th floor of Memorial’s main campus will be converted to a 30-bed geriatric unit.
Two other phases will be added to the behavioral health hospital in the future: two additional 28 bed units and a medical office building for outpatient programs. When all phases are completed, a total of 65,000 square feet and 102 beds will be available to treat the behavioral health needs of Southwest Louisiana.
Patients will no longer need to go to the emergency room to access behavioral health services. They will be able to go directly to the new hospital and receive a free assessment and recommendation on the type of treatment they may need, whether that is outpatient care, day program or inpatient hospitalization.
Renderings of the project can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n21u51f5nr7bdh1/AAA0GSi76NiPx6YogIdHRiFMa?dl=0
