Tampa General partners with medical group on new psychiatric hospital

Tampa General Hospital is partnering with Kindred Behavioral Health on its new $43 million psychiatric hospital coming to Kennedy Boulevard.

The agreement means that TGH will provide medical support services, staffing, physician credentialing, a laboratory and security while Kindred will manage the day-to-day operations of the new hospital. The Department of Psychiatry at USF Health’s Morsani College of Medicine will provide the care for the patients.

TGH and Kindred have a similar agreement in place for the rehabilitation hospital under construction right next to where the psychiatric center will be built. The facilities will be on Kennedy Boulevard between Oregon and Willow Avenues.

Kindred Rehabilitation Services and Kindred Behavioral Health currently have 30 similar joint ventures at specialty hospitals in 17 states. Louisville, Kentucky-based Kindred Healthcare was bought by LifePoint Health in December.

John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital, says in a statement that joining forces makes sense because “Kindred’s operational expertise and track record of delivering exceptional patient outcomes, along with USF Health’s leading-edge, academic-based medical care, mirrors our standards for excellence.” 

The new four-story, 83,000-square-foot behavioral hospital will include 96 inpatient beds but could grow to 120 beds. Construction is expected to begin later this year or early next year and open in late 2024. It will employ 200.

In a February announcement, TGH said that the new hospital will serve as a Central Receiving Facility.

This means it will operate “as the first point of evaluation and care, providing initial emergent evaluations for individuals in the community going through a behavioral health crisis.” Patients coming to the hospital facing mental health emergencies will be evaluated and get “intensive stabilization with an immediate assessment to determine the safest treatment plan beyond the initial crisis.”

The hospital will also serve as a training ground for students at the Morsani College of Medicine and provide on-the-job training for resident doctors, the hospital said in the February announcement. And the hospital can act as “a recruitment tool” to bring new medical residents and psychiatrists to the area, Tampa General says in the statement.