i know this is old, but it is history for someof us.
March 12, 1998, Thursday
SECTION: Utah; Pg. C4
LENGTH: 474 words
HEADLINE: St. George Youth Facility Shutting Down
BYLINE: GREG BURTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
BODY:
A southern Utah adolescent hospital will close its doors Sunday, two weeks before a
state-mandated deadline to correct a series of management snafus.
But declining revenues, not state pressure, was cited by administrators for the closure at
Brightway Adolescent Hospital in St. George, where as many as 200 teens were admitted
during a six-month period last year.
"It's money -- insurance companies are less apt to cover psychiatric and substance abuse -- we have lost a large amount of money," said Brightway administrator Ken Kay. "We submitted a plan of correction for any problems we had with the state and they have been approved. As far as anything else, I don't know what their agenda is or was."
Brightway is owned by Salt Lake City-based Utah Alcoholism Foundation, a nonprofit
corporation. But since its inception in 1993, the facility has been run under a contract with a group of southern Utah businesses.
Those businesses and their close association with for-profit residential treatment centers in
Montana, Utah, Jamaica and American Samoa was a cause of concern with officials at the
Department of Health.
"It would have been easy for us to just close and let them do what they wanted to do -- but we stayed long enough to clear up matters," Kay said. "But I'll have to tell you, I did not agree that all the citations were justified. I thought we should have appealed."
Brightway consists of an 18-bed adolescent hospital and a 24-bed adult treatment hospital. The inpatient facility catering to adult substance abusers has not been disciplined by state officials and is not closing.
"The adolescent center will be closing, and then it is the Foundation's intent to reopen under new management," said Paula O. Bell, managing director of the adult facility. "We feel bad that this is happening, but it hasn't affected our operations. We're going as strong as we ever have."
On Feb. 13, the Utah Department of Health ordered the adolescent facility to open admission
records in the wake of the hospital's second conditional permit in six months.
State officials have been critical of failures to report evidence of child abuse and a pattern of
admitting teen-agers to the alcohol and drug treatment program before obtaining permission from both custodial parents.
When and if the adolescent hospital reopens, state licensing officials must approve any change in management.
"We're pleased that the Utah Alcoholism Foundation is assuming the control of the facility that we suggested," said Debra Wynkoop-Green, director of the Department of Health's bureau of licensing. "At this point they have made the corrections that we requested."
The adolescent hospital admitted about 200 patients in six months, sending most to residential treatment facilities in the United States and other countries.
