Here are five things to know.
1. The project, approved Thursday by the Iowa Health Facilities Council, would be the state’s first private, freestanding psychiatric hospital, according to the report. It would be located in Bettendorf.
2. The hospital is projected to cost $15 million and include more than 70 beds.
3. The project is controversial, partly because it would be built by Memphis, Tenn.-based Strategic Behavioral Health, a for-profit national mental health organization. During testimony this week, the project’s opponents, including Davenport, Iowa-based Genesis Health System, stressed their belief the hospital is unnecessary, as they “already offer sufficient services and would be harmed by a new facility built by the for-profit company,” according to the report. In contrast, the report states, supporters argued the new hospital “would provide desperately needed mental health services for eastern Iowa,” and “could help take pressure off the state’s jails.”
4. In the end, state regulators, who also considered the proposal twice in 2016 but were deadlocked both times, approved the plans.
5. Strategic Behavioral Health Founder and President Jim Shaheen told state regulators his company hopes to complete the project within a year-and-a-half, according to the report.
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