A new hospital will help address a longstanding shortage of mental health services in western Massachusetts.
“Bigger and better” is how Dr. Barry Sarvet, the Chair of Baystate Health’s Department of Psychiatry, describes the Valley Springs Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke.
When fully opened later this year, the number of behavioral health beds in the region will increase by 50 percent.
“Not only the beds, but we’re going to have better environments, better facilities, more resources to help people in clinical programs that are contemporary and effective,” Sarvet said.
The new 122,000-square-foot, four-story hospital was built as a joint venture between Baystate and Lifepoint Health of Tennessee at a reported cost of $72 million. Lifepoint Behavioral Health operates the hospital.
There are 150 private and semi-private rooms in the hospital that Sarvet said was designed and built specifically to provide inpatient behavioral healthcare for adults, adolescents, and children.
“This facility has outdoor spaces for recreation, lots of light,” he said. “It is not crammed into a regional community hospital but was designed from the ground up for this kind of care.”
With the opening of the hospital, Baystate is planning to shut down some behavioral health services at community hospitals in Westfield and Palmer as well as a 12-bed inpatient unit for children and adolescents at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
Demand for psychiatric services increased greatly during the pandemic. Hospitals saw a surge in patients who had to wait in emergency rooms for days, or even weeks, before a bed became available – a practice known as boarding.
The new hospital will greatly reduce the likelihood patients will have to be transferred out of the region in order to receive care, said Roy Sasenaraine, the CEO of Valley Springs.
“For loved ones looking to visit their family member, they don’t have to travel long distances,” he said.
Initially, just 30 long-term beds are being used as the hospital waits for the proper accreditation and continues to hire staff.
Eventually, the hospital expects to employ about 400 people, said Sasenaraine.
“The facility itself has been a great selling point with people walking up and applying for jobs,” he said. “I have no doubt we will have staffing challenges as we open 120 beds, but right now we’re doing okay.”
Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia credited the Holyoke City Council and teamwork at City Hall for expediting the hospital project through the permitting process.
“Local government can be complex, where we have to go through the site plan reviews and issue permits, enforce ordinances and other laws,” he said. “But here in Holyoke, it’s seamless because we have an incredible team and network that is able to streamline and achieve the level of efficiency we need so that projects like this one can come to fruition.”
The hospital was built on the site of the former Holyoke Geriatric Authority nursing home.
