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The vision for a 50-bed state psychiatric hospital in Wichita had already included expanding to 100 patient beds with time.
Now, that could happen more quickly — with a higher near-term price tag that could hit nearly $120 million.
As soon as this week, Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to propose a budget amendment to request millions in added funding from the Kansas Legislature, so that the hospital, planned for the northwest corner of Meridian and MacArthur in southwest Wichita, can go straight to 104 beds when construction is expected to begin in early 2025.
State and county officials say this approach will save money over the long-term versus circling back in several years to increase capacity.
"There is a huge cost savings to do that all up front," Sedgwick County assistant manager Tania Cole said in an interview.
Under an agreement, Sedgwick County will lead construction of the project and then turn the hospital over to the state upon completion in late 2026.
The building's design phase, led by Pulse Design Group of Kansas City, Mo., with Wichita-based Tessere also involved, is expected to wrap this fall. The hospital is anticipated to have its first patients in early 2027.
Currently, there's $70 million in place for the facility — $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and $45 million from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services budget, according to KDADS.
In an interview, Scott Brunner, KDADS deputy secretary of hospitals and facilities, said the governor's request for additional funding could be up to $40-$50 million.
"I feel pretty good about it in a lot of ways, but it's still a big ask," he said. "We'll certainly make the case for it over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully it becomes part of the budget package before they leave."
The Kansas Legislature will reconvene Thursday for the final leg of its 2023-24 session set to wrap in early May.
In January, Sedgwick County commissioners approved acreage within the future OneRise Health Campus at Meridian and MacArthur as the site for a 50-bed, state-run psychiatric hospital.
The facility is expected to address a long-standing need in Kansas, with state-run hospitals in Osawatomie and Larned located more than a two-hour drive from Wichita.
OneRise is the vision of prominent Wichita real estate veteran Jeff Lange and his family, which aims to combine mental health, addiction and homeless services.
The location was selected by a panel that included officials from KDADS and Sedgwick County. Other finalists for the site were the former Riverside Hospital, near Central and McLean Boulevard, along with locations at 53rd Street North and Greenwich, and 85th Street North and I-135.
In a March 22 meeting, the state's South Central Regional Psychiatric Hospital Advisory Panel passed a motion to recommend the construction of a 104-bed facility to the governor and legislature.
During that meeting, Cole presented a cost analysis that showed tens of millions could be saved by going with full construction of a 104-bed hospital now versus constructing a 50-bed facility and then building additional capacity several years later.
The panel discussed how the move appeared to be the most cost-effective, even if the facility couldn't immediately take on 100-plus patients due to staffing constraints. According to Brunner, the hospital will need 300 to 350 staff, not including contract positions.
That motion also reaffirmed the panel's backing of OneRise as the hospital's location after a lobbying campaign — spearheaded by former Sedgwick County commissioner Michael O'Donnell — had pushed for Riverside Hospital to be reconsidered, grabbing interest from some state legislators.
What about Riverside Hospital?
In late February, O'Donnell's lobbying effort to reconsider Riverside Hospital for the psychiatric hospital caused a stir and questions about whether there could be a pivot from Meridian and MacArthur.
In March, at the request of some state legislators, the county provided a cost comparison of building new at OneRise versus using the former Riverside Hospital, a 170,000 square-foot facility built in 1966 and owned by by Gregory Lakin's I Thrive LLC, for a 104-bed facility.
The Pulse-led analysis, provided to the WBJ, showed converting Riverside to meet the state's needs would cost between $123.2 million and $150.1 million, compared to OneRise, which is estimated at $94.2 million to $114.7 million.
Pulse's report addressed multiple issues it saw with Riverside's potential effectiveness.
"The alternative proposal to renovate Riverside Hospital for 165 beds does not include sufficient on-unit treatment space, separate recreational areas, any outside recreational spaces, and medical clinic spaces within the footprint needed for the Regional State Hospital," the report said.
Brunner acknowledged differences in opinion still exist with Riverside backers.
"I think we kicked the tires pretty hard on different options," he said. "I don't know that we're going to satisfy anybody who wanted to see a direct apples-to-apples comparison."
Nearly two months since the Riverside lobbying effort, both Cole and Brunner say that OneRise is still the planned location.
"To my knowledge, we have not heard any additional information push for Riverside Hospital," Cole said. "So we continue to move forward with the MacArthur and Meridian property."
Moving forward, Brunner said there is a "non-zero" chance of a change in the site due to legislature action, "but I don't think it's very likely."
Cole said "all systems are a go" on building a state psychiatric hospital at OneRise.
"Now what has to happen is just making sure that we have full funding to build that hospital," she said.