>>Kansas approves $15 million to help build 50-bed state mental health hospital in Wichita

Kansas officials approved $15 million toward the construction of a new 50-bed mental health hospital in the Wichita region Wednesday.

The state finance council, consisting of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leaders from both parties, voted unanimously to allow the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability to begin using $15 million allocated in last year’s budget on the new hospital.

The potential hospital was the subject of an interim legislative committee this summer exploring solutions to Kansas’ need for additional mental health resources.

Kansas’ existing mental health hospitals, Larned State Hospital in western Kansas and Osawatomie State Hospital near the KC Metro, have been plagued by wait lists and understaffing.

“South central Kansas accounts for 50 percent of the people transported to Larned,” incoming Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said last week at a Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce event. “It doesn’t take long to figure out that we need a mental health facility here in Wichita.”

Lawmakers hope building the additional hospital in the Wichita region will alleviate some of the stress on the other institutions while pulling staff from one of the state’s main population centers.

In addition to the $15 million in state dollars, Sedgwick County has requested another $25 million for the project from the state committee in charge of disbursing $374 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

“This is something that the county’s been trying to get started for years at this point, so to have that officially in the budget is a really big deal,” Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez said Wednesday.

“It changes so much for our community because right now our largest mental health hospital is our jail, and that’s just unacceptable . . . Allowing at least 50 more beds with the potential of more to come will be an incredible asset to not just Sedgwick County but our entire region and our state.”

While the state budget specifically allocated funds for a 50-bed hospital, lawmakers have asked KDADS to ensure the facility has room for growth beyond 50 beds.

Hawkins has previously said the proposed hospital may not be big enough, indicating he would like to see the project scaled up to better meet the needs of south central Kansas.

“They tell me that if we just do a 50-bed hospital, it will be full before we start, so it’s probably going to have to be quite a bit more than 50,” Hawkins told The Wichita Eagle this fall.

The Larned hospital has 525 beds, according to KDADs, and funding approved for renovation at Osawatomie State Hospital will increase bed capacity there from 163 to 218 within the next year.

Hawkins said he would like to see a private company, not the state itself, be in charge of running a Wichita-area facility. The Larned and Osawatomie facilities are both operated by the state.

“We should not operate mental health facilities,” Hawkins said. “Privatize it. We’ll build it, but let a private company that has the expertise at running a mental health hospital run it.”

Lopez said she doesn’t have a particular preference on whether the hospital is managed publicly or privately.

“The state can do whatever they want. If the state wants to have a third party come in and run it — perfectly fine. However they see fit, but it won’t be Sedgwick County running it,” Lopez said.

No location for the mental hospital has been chosen yet, but the approval of state funds comes as Wichita State University and the University of Kansas Medical Center move forward with plans to build a $302 million, 470,000-square-foot Health Science Education Center in the heart of downtown Wichita.