Indian Path Pavilion in Kingsport offers mental and substance abuse services to patients. On Friday Mountain States Health Alliance announced that this facility will close.
"It became apparent that we could no longer sustain two inpatient facilities 26 miles apart and after looking at the financials it became apparent that we needed to close Indian Path Pavilion," said Ann Fleming, Mountain States Health Alliance senior vice president.
Now, patients who received care at Indian Path Pavilion will be treated at Woodridge Hospital in Johnson City. 114 people work at Indian Path Pavilion. Fleming said efforts will be made to move as many of these employees to other positions within the company. Fleming said state funding cuts are a big reason why they are closing Indian Path Pavilion.
"It started about a year ago with the decrease in reimbursement from TennCare and the reimbursement issues that's facing us all as part of healthcare reform," Fleming said.
Fleming also told 11 Connects that closing Indian Path Pavilion will not affect patient care.
"Behavioral services is a very needed service in this region, we know we are the primary provider for that, it is our mission to serve the citizens in our area for behavioral health services, but we wanted to be able to do it in a way that we could sustain it into the future," said Fleming.
All mental and substance abuse services at Indian Path Pavilion will be consolidated to Woodridge Hospital over the next two months.
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