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On Tuesday, April 16, leadership from Mind Springs Health that it might have to close the West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction after a challenging five years.

John Sheehan, the president and chief executive officer of Mind Springs, cited significant financial and staffing challenges, increasing claim denials as well as “reputational concerns, intense regulatory scrutiny and the cost of unprecedented compliance activity” among the reasons for possible closure.

Currently, the Grand Junction psychiatric hospital is the only facility of its kind on Colorado’s Western Slope, providing 48 inpatient beds and a psychiatric emergency department for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.

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According to Sheehan’s announcement, West Spring’s Psychiatric Emergency Department “is an essential resource for law enforcement; allowing patients to receive immediate treatment when they are in an emergent mental health crisis” and “reduces the burden on local medical emergency departments.”

Its closure would have a ripple effect on the many communities, like Eagle ¾Ã¾ÃÈȾ«Æ·ÊÓƵapp, that rely on the hospital for care.

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Nico Brown, Vail Health’s chief strategy officer, said that West Springs is one of 15 inpatient psychiatric hospitals across the state that Vail Health regularly partners with “to treat our most vulnerable and at-risk populations.”

“West Springs is the only inpatient psychiatric hospital to our west in the state and we regularly partner with them for the treatment of individuals with the most complex mental health needs, including children and individuals involved in the criminal justice system,” Brown said. “The potential closure of West Springs Hospital would impact access to treatment for these high-risk populations from Vail Health and other hospitals to our west.”

Through Vail Health Behavioral Health, the organization has made strides to address the mental health crisis in the Eagle River Valley and neighboring communities. Since its creation in 2019, Brown emphasized that Vail Health Behavioral Health (formerly Eagle Valley Behavioral Health) has grown to provide 1,700 outpatient therapy, psychiatry and case management appointments per month with 25 licensed on-site providers. It has also worked to reduce the financial barrier to seeking treatment, he added.

This service growth has been supported by the creation of new infrastructure to meet community mental and behavioral health needs. In 2023, Vail Health Behavioral Health opened an outpatient behavioral health clinic, the Wiegers Mental Health Clinic, and is working toward opening a 28-bed inpatient facility, the Precourt Healing Center, in spring 2025.

However, until Precourt is open, Vail Health relies on other Colorado hospitals like West Springs in Grand Junction to accommodate this critical mental health need.

“Precourt cannot open soon enough to accommodate those needs, and individuals would have to be transferred even farther from their homes for access to care,” Brown said of the West Springs closure.

Katie Coakley, Eagle ¾Ã¾ÃÈȾ«Æ·ÊÓƵapp Paramedics Services’s public information officer, said West Springs is among the hospitals that the local paramedics agency transfers to. The agency also transports to Cedar Spring Hospital in Colorado Springs, Centennial Peaks in Louisville, Denver Springs in Englewood and Highlands Behavioral Health in Littleton.

In 2021, 7% of all its transfers — of which there were 35 total that year — went to the Grand Junction hospital, Coakley reported.

“That number has been decreasing since then. We only transported three patients there last year and two patients so far in 2024 year to date,” she said. “This change might have as much to do with bed availability at that facility as anything else (if they were already full from other patients, then we would have needed to find other receiving facilities).”

The closure of any facility like West Springs will have a local impact, Coakley noted.

“Inpatient mental health centers are a statewide shared resource and patients are normally transported very long distances in order to find any center with availability which can be detrimental to their overall care by removing them from local communities where they might have family and friend support,” she said. “As a result, anytime an inpatient mental health center anywhere in Colorado closes, it will negatively affect the overall health care system.”

Coakley added that having a local resource when Precourt opens in Edwards “will be a much-welcomed addition to these other options.”

In the April announcement, Sheehan reported that the hospital is exploring all its options to stay open.

“We are committed to collaborating with health care organizations across the state, government leaders and other psychiatric facilities. We are currently engaging with community stakeholders and governmental leaders and other agencies for help; parties that would be impacted by a potential closure,” he wrote.

Sheehan that West Springs has less than 30 days of cash on hand, adding that Mind Springs needs $6.6 million from the state to help stabilize and hire.

“Despite our best efforts over the past year, sustaining operations has become uncertain,” wrote Sheehan in the announcement.

The challenges faced by West Springs speak to greater challenges in health care, Brown said.

“West Springs Hospital’s difficulties are not unusual in the increasingly challenging health care environment,” he said. “According to the Colorado Hospital Association, more than 70% of Colorado hospitals have unsustainable operating margins.”

This statistic comes from the . The report adds that these financial challenges come from increasing expenses — with supply costs increasing by 35% and labor costs by 30% since 2019 — as well as higher lengths of stay and fewer discharges. It warns that the unsustainable margins could lead to hospital closures, discharge backlogs, reduced access to care, increased costs, reduced services and further distance to care.

“Vail Health is deeply troubled by the potential closure of any Colorado hospital, especially one focused on the provision of behavioral health services,” Brown said.