Inpatient Facilities Reflect Specialized Needs

By: Brys, Shannon | This article was originally published in Behavioral Healthcare Executive.

Although individuals and businesses in the United States have been tightening their belts in recent years due to economic uncertainty, the construction and renovation of new behavioral health facilities and units has continued forward and may now be accelerating further.

Jim Hunt, AIA, NCARB, president of Behavioral Health Facility Consulting, LLC (Topeka, Kansas), says that facility-related activity seemed to slow somewhat in mid- to late 2012, likely because anxious executives and boards held back on spending until they knew for certain the results and implications of the tumultuous 2012 election.

However, since the first of the year, he reports that requests for design related services have increased significantly. This comes as no surprise given the long-predicted surge of new behavioral health consumers that are expected to enter the market for services starting in 2014, due to health reforms that expand the availability of health insurance to nearly all Americans.