Governor Dan McKee has proposed a $10 million budget amendment to revive a 21-bed long-term behavioral health unit at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence, aiming to address Rhode Island’s critical shortage of mental health services.
The proposal would retool a mostly-empty wing to accept Medicaid-eligible patients and clarify funding and oversight of the program. McKee’s office insists the May 27 budget amendment is unrelated to the pending sale of Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center from bankrupt owner Prospect Medical Holdings to The Centurion Foundation. However, the proposal was unveiled just two days before the closing on $140.7 million in bonds necessary to cover the purchase price and capital injection required by state officials.
Fatima opened a 20-bed behavioral health unit in 2016 under agreement with the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services to ease capacity at the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital. The original program received $850 per patient per day in direct state funding. However, only three patients from that transfer remain, and the unit closed to new admissions years ago due to confusion over funding and oversight. McKee’s proposal would reshape the program to be federally recognized and eligible for Medicaid reimbursement through managed care organizations, opening the beds to new admissions from short-term psychiatric programs or emergency rooms.
As of Thursday morning, 46 adults were waiting in hospital emergency rooms for inpatient psychiatric care, with 11 designated as potential harm to themselves or others. Another 50 patients in acute psychiatric programs had been there longer than 30 days and could benefit from longer-term treatment. Rhode Island ranked 19th among states for psychiatric beds per 100,000 residents in 2023. The proposed funding would come from $4.3 million in surplus state funds from fiscal 2025, along with an assumed $5.7 million federal match.
McKee’s proposal faces uncertainty given the state’s projected $185 million deficit and threats of federal funding cuts, with lawmakers expressing concern about competing budget demands.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2025/05/29/mckee-proposes-more-long-term-psychiatric-beds-at-fatima-to-ease-r-i-s-mental-health-crisis/