Indiana Regional Treatment Centers

As the Prime Consultant, we conducted programming, master planning, regulatory analysis, conceptual design, staffing projections, and siting for two new freestanding regional treatment centers in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. These facilities will replace existing, inefficient state hospitals.

For Fort Wayne, we developed a plan for a 120-bed hospital that could expand to a 150-bed hospital. One key issue that we addressed was how to best configure the facility to accommodate a population that will initially be predominantly developmentally disabled but may ultimately be predominantly mentally ill.

We also addressed how to configure a facility to minimize staffing in keeping with the disparate care needs of an increasingly sick patient population. We developed a series of approximately eight unit/subunit configurations with associated staffing plans. The State of Indiana is currently deciding which model will be the basis for the completion of our work. Ultimately we concluded that it is possible to blend the requirements of the disparate populations to develop a facility that adequately suited each.

For Indianapolis, we developed consensus around the distribution and facility size. The conclusion was to build a 150-bed hospital that was capable of expanding to a 170-bed hospital. Funding for a potential research component was uncertain as planning concluded. As a result, the plan was written so that the hospital could expand to embrace a research mission should the opportunity arise.